Gundam Wing: Destiny's Call
by operation meteor
Summary: Sequel to Journey to a New Battlefield. It's been two years since the Bloody Valentine War, and tensions are rising. When a shadowy group attacks the colony of Armory One, a certain Gundam pilot must take to the battlefield once again. However, little to his knowledge, some old friends have embarked on a journey to his new world... and their power will rock it to its core.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes: **I'M BACK, BABY! Okay, it's only been a little over a week since I marked _Gundam Wing: Journey to a New Battlefield_ as complete, but still… damn it feels good to have another story underway, and the sequel to boot!

One thing we need to get out of the way before getting into this. You'll notice that the date listed for this chapter is in A.C. 198. Now, I'm assuming that if you're reading this fic you've got a basic working knowledge of both Wing and SEED canon, which means that you're aware that the original _Endless Waltz _took place in December of A.C. 196. You'll notice that I don't make reference to it at all in this chapter, and that's for a very simple reason; in my fic, the Mariemaia Rebellion hasn't happened yet. That's right, I'm changing the canon, which is one of the benefits of writing fanfic. Now, Dekim Barton's insurrection _will _happen eventually, but it has not happened _yet_. Trust me, when it does, you'll know, because that's gonna be crucial for Part Three and this saga's grand finale. I'm not saying any more than that for now, so don't bother with questions on that.

I'm still doing the same song system that I had in Part One, so you longtime readers know the drill. If you're new, I highly recommend reading Part One first. Only one song for this chapter: "Journey to the Sun", from _Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz_.

I'll save everything else for the end-of-the-chapter Author's Notes. For now, let's get this show on the road!

**Gundam Wing: Destiny's Call**

**Episode One: Bon Voyage**

**October 2****nd****, A.C. 198**

**Start "Journey to the Sun"**

High above the blue, white, and green gem that was the Earth, a gathering over two years in the making was taking place. Their hulls gleaming as they caught the distant sunlight, six unique mobile suits and a white light cruiser maintained their positions, their occupants waiting for the final preparations for the mission to be complete.

Kicking back in the cockpit of his machine, his helmet set aside for the moment, an eighteen-year old young man in a black flight suit put his arms behind his head and smiled. It had taken far too long to make it to this point, and he was raring to get the show on the road. His blue eyes gleamed with excitement. Adjusting his right shoulder so his long, brown braided tail could fall down his chest, Duo Maxwell chuckled as he watched the activity taking place outside his Gundam.

"Over two years…" he murmured, "I wonder how he's doing…"

It still felt like it was only yesterday that he had heard the news that Heero Yuy had disappeared after destroying the falling Barge reactor. What had followed next, the revelation that the longtime salvage master and former mobile suit scientist Mike Howard had given them, had been even more shocking than the initial announcement of Heero's mission.

_I guess if any of us was going to get his ass flung into another world, it'd be Heero_, Duo mused, _That guy's got some crazy luck even by _our _standards._

Duo had been the first to volunteer to chase after him, but unfortunately before he could get his Gundam into position the portal that the combination of the Twin Buster Rifle's energy and the massive amount of power released from the falling reactor's detonation had opened had destabilized and disappeared. Luckily for them all, Howard had been relatively close by to monitor Heero's mission at the time, and his ship had been able to take detailed sensor readings of the anomaly that had resulted from the titanic explosion.

Though he had been worried, Duo had never doubted for a moment that his old friend had survived. After all the crazy stunts that the L2 native had seen his fellow Gundam pilot pull he knew that it was far too early to count Heero as a dead man. Still, that did not change the fact that to go after him would be a tremendous undertaking, one that would take an incredible amount of preparation.

Said preparation had been handled by Howard and Preventers Director Lady Une. Combining the data from Howard's ship, his expertise, and the scientific and engineering resources of the newly-forged Earth Sphere Unified Nation, a massive but behind-the-scenes effort was undertaken to first understand the incredible forces that had been unleashed by Heero's shot and had pulled him to this mysterious new world before trying to find a way to go after him. That first period of theoretical work, of temporal and quantum calculations and hypotheses far over his head, had been by far the most tense for Duo; it was an area that he could contribute absolutely nothing to, and it had royally pissed him off. Were it not for Hilde's calming influence he could very well have driven himself mad with frustration.

_Good thing I managed to find ways to keep myself occupied_, he thought, _The peace doesn't keep itself, after all… plus Hilde kept me busy helping her out with the junkyard._

While waiting for the day that he and the others could go after Heero and bring him home, Duo had split his time between helping his then-fiancé maintain her business at L2 and taking contracts for Preventers. It had helped make the days go by, but all the while he was aware of the absence of his friend, especially when he and Hilde had finally tied the knot; he'd been hoping Heero could be the best man. However, there was nothing he could do but trust that Lady Une and Howard had things under control.

_At least Howard was able to multitask_, he thought with a smirk, _I'm glad he was able to upgrade my buddy here before our big trip._

With a combination of Sweeper Group and government resources, Deathscythe Hell had morphed into Deathscythe Omega. The Gundam had already born a striking resemblance to the Grim Reaper thanks to its black and dark grey color scheme, and now the God of Death's steed was even more a spitting image of Hades. The twin blades on the end of the beam scythe had been brought back down to one, but the beam was larger, capable of cutting down several enemies with a broad swing. On the opposite side of the beam emitter remained the thruster designed to increase the power of a swing, and that thruster had been further improved for additional output and thus greater striking power. The Active Cloak Beam Deflection Barrier had been completely remodeled, and when it was opened up it looked even more like the wings of a bat than the previous design. In addition to that, within the cloak were implanted a series of Micro-Defensors which created a small-scale energy field that further increased the cloak's ability to take beam fire, and the field could even be maintained while the cloak was open. In that form it could only take a few hits before shorting out, but it was still a nifty defense. Also, the stealth systems in the cloak had been boosted; a full-visual-spectrum tactical cloak could be maintained for less of an energy draw for longer periods, though it was still best used in the opening strike or hit-and-run attacks and not over the course of a prolonged battle.

The twin Vulcan Guns mounted by the head remained, and Duo had improved his skills with them to be better able to shoot down incoming missiles. Broad light-grey fins were mounted on the black shoulder panels, and in addition to helping stabilize the Gundam in the atmosphere they contained high-pressure fog emitters, designed less for actually concealing the mobile suit and more for the psychological effect such a mist combined with the machine's demonic appearance would have on enemies.

The Gundam's Hyper Jammer ECM Suite remained a critical part of its arsenal, capable of scrambling enemy radar and cameras. In addition to these capabilities the system had also been upgraded with the ability to hack missiles and send them back to their source. This capability could only be used with a limited number of missiles at a time though; a sufficient quantity of warheads could overwhelm the system and force Duo to employ the Vulcan Guns. Rounding out Deathscythe Omega's capabilities were improved engines, upping the Gundam's speed and maneuverability. Like all the other upgraded Gundams, Duo's machine was capable of full, unsupported atmospheric flight.

_If we're not the God of Death now, buddy_, he thought, _then I don't think we ever could be… and you're not the only one that's gotten a boost in ass-kicking power._

To his right he could see the Gundam Heavyarms Arsenal. The most obvious cosmetic change for Trowa Barton's machine had been the shift in paint schemes, from white, orange, and red to dark blue and white. Beyond that, though, the mobile suit had been given a serious boost in raw firepower. On its right arm was mounted the Double Barrel Gatling Gun, while on its left was mounted a new weapon, the Double Assault Beam Cannon. This was essentially two Mobile Doll beam cannons mounted in a similar fashion to the Double Barrel Gatling Gun. Two Vulcan Guns were mounted on the head, while concealed within the clavicle armor were two stronger Machine Cannons. The unit's missile payload had been significantly increased, with the homing missiles stored in the front skirts and leg pods increased to 44 and the micro-missiles stored within the shoulders and side skirts increased to 52. Rounding out the mobile suit's arsenal were four smaller Gatling Guns concealed in the Gundam's chest. The machine truly did live up to its name; it was indeed a walking Arsenal.

_He is vulnerable up close_, thought Duo, _but that's what the rest of us are for. Take Quatre, for instance…_

Past the Heavyarms Arsenal there was the Gundam Sandrock Saladin. Cosmetic changes included an alteration of the paintjob, switching from black and gold to a mixture of light blue, white, and red. The two wicked, curved Heat Shotels had been upgraded, first by increasing their length and then by implanting a series of micro-energy field emitters within the blades, allowing them to parry strikes from beam sabers. A shield, modeled after a snake's head, was mounted on the left arm, and within the two 'eyes' were mounted brilliant flasher lights that could be used to blind enemies. Draped over the Gundam's heavy armor was a tan Diffusing Cloak, a large fabric that was able to take a few beam hits before disintegrating, providing a temporary defense. Upping the Gundam's firepower were two homing missile pods mounded on the legs, each one holding a dozen missiles. Rounding out the arsenal was the two typical head mounted Vulcan Cannons. The mobile suit wasn't as fast as Deathscythe Omega, but of all the Gundam's it had the heaviest armor, and in Quatre's capable hands the mobile suit was _very _hard to kill.

As formidable as Gundam Sandrock Saladin was, though, Duo knew that there was another machine that could edge it out in close-quarters-combat, though it would be a close contest. Chang Wufei's machine, the Altron Custom, had been modified to be a melee fighter on par with the fearsome Gundam Epyon. Sporting a primarily green paintjob, the Gundam quite clearly reflected its origins from the Chinese-dominated L5 colonies and the heritage of its master.

Its signature Dragon Fangs had been significantly modified. For starters, the way they were connected to the arms had been redesigned; they were now mounted in a set of folding blocks and not part of the entire mobile suit arms so if they were damaged or destroyed in combat that would not also result in the loss of the arms. The length the Dragon Fangs could extend had been increased and could reach three to four times the unit's arm length, longer than the previous incarnations could. The heads of the Dragon Fangs had been significantly enlarged and reinforced to the point that they could serve as shields. Finally, the flamethrowers mounted within the Dragon Fangs had been upgraded, their fire capable of reaching further and burning far hotter than before.

The Gundam had kept its Twin Beam Trident for blade-to-blade combat. The handle had been modified to be able to extend or contract to a certain degree, and if Wufei wanted to he could have either one or both ends ignited. It was a highly versatile weapon, one that even a fellow Gundam pilot would be hard pressed to fight against. Like the other Gundams, the machine had kept its twin head-mounted Vulcan Guns. However, the scorpion-like tail with the twin beam cannons had actually been removed during the modifications, per Wufei's request. In their place Howard had installed a set of extremely powerful boosters, much like those that had been mounted on the Tallgeese. Altron Custom's speed was incredible, but it was also very difficult to control, and Duo was amazed that Wufei was capable of utilizing them to their full potential.

_Then again_, Duo mused, _his martial arts training always did set him apart from the rest of us. Maybe that's got something to do with how he's able to handle his machine…_

The power of those four machines was far greater than any of their pilots could've imagined back when they had embarked on Operation Meteor over three years ago. They were even stronger than the modifications that they had received halfway through the last war, and Duo had to wonder what kind of havoc they could've wrought against the forces of OZ and White Fang with machines like these.

The last two mobile suits and their pilots would not be joining Duo and the others on their journey, but they would be instrumental in getting it started. The first, piloted by none other than Zechs Merquise, was the Tallgeese III. It was the latest model of the Tallgeese line, and Duo had been surprised to learn that construction on it had originally been started by order of none other than Treize Khushrenada, thought it had not been completed in time for that fateful final battle at the _Libra_.

Like its predecessor, the Tallgeese III bore a predominantly white paintjob with some blue trim mixed in. The high power thrusters had again been improved for even greater speed and maneuverability, and Duo had to wonder how even a pilot as gifted as the former Lightning Count could control such a machine. It retained the beam saber from the previous two incarnations, but it had also received three new weapons. Mounted on the head were two Vulcan Guns, the same type found on the Gundams. The shield on the left shoulder had been enlarged, and mounted within it was a retractable Heat Rod, much like the weapon that had been on the Epyon Gundam. Finally, mounted on the right shoulder was the fearsome Mega Beam Cannon. The weapon had two modes: a compact configuration which functioned much like a standard beam rifle, and a 'Burst Mode' where the weapon's barrel split open and extended. In that second mode the gun was almost as powerful as Wing Zero's legendary Twin Buster Rifle, a feature that would be vital for today's operation to succeed.

The final mobile suit, piloted by Lucrezia Noin and also vital to the successful launch of the operation, was a mobile suit that Duo had not expected to see again. He, along with the rest of the world, had thought it destroyed at the end of the war two years ago. However, that mobile suit, like its former pilot, had proven to have the lives of a cat, and Duo had to wonder what its former pilot could say if he could see it now.

_Then again_, he mused, _I suppose it was only the bottom half that was trashed. Still, I didn't expect Howard and Une to restore it, much less upgrade it._

It was the Wing Gundam.

Of the five mobile suits developed for Operation Meteor, the Wing Gundam was the machine that bore the most resemblance to their common ancestor, the Wing Gundam Zero. It bore a similar blue, red, and white color scheme, and had a red shield mounted on its left arm. The original Buster Rifle had been restored and upgraded in both firepower and efficiency. It retained the head-mounted Vulcan Guns and clavicle mounted Machine Cannons, along with its beam sabers, and just as before the machine could transform into a Bird Mode for high-speed and long distance flight travel within Earth's atmosphere. However, the Gundam's mobility had been significantly increased, and just like the other upgraded Gundams assembled here today it too was capable of full atmospheric flight even without the Bird Mode configuration, and it could also fight quite capably in outer space.

_Too bad Zechs and Noin ain't coming with us_, he thought, _although I guess someone's got to help Lady Une keep the peace while the rest of us are away._

Zechs' voice came over the radio. "All pilots, status report."

Duo shook his head. _Speak of the devil…_

"This is Wing Gundam," said Noin, "All systems online."

"Sandrock here," said Quatre, "Everything's good to go."

"This is Heavyarms," said Trowa, "All readings at optimal levels."

"All good here," chimed in Wufei.

"Yeah, just peachy over here, too," said Duo, smirking, "Can we get this show on the road now?"

"In a minute," Zechs replied, "Howard, how is it?"

'It' was the large, bulky object floating a considerable distance overhead.

A perfect replica of the original jettisoned Barge reactor.

After a _very _long period of research and debate, it had been decided that the best way to guarantee the successful creation of the portal that had transported Heero to another world would be to replicate the conditions of its original creation as closely as possible. A blast of similar magnitude, such as multiple simultaneous detonations of nuclear warheads in a single location, could in theory accomplish that, but both Howard and Lady Une still had not been satisfied with that. Thus they had worked in secret to reconstruct the Barge reactor and make it capable of storing the same amount of lethal power that had been held within the original at the time of Heero's mission. Building a new Barge reactor had actually taken only a few months; it was all the research and debate beforehand that had taken up most of the time required to get to the point they were at now.

The recreated reactor block was only half of the equation, though. It wasn't enough, in Howard's train of thought, to simply detonate the reactor. The trigger had to be the same as in the original incident, or as close to it as possible. Lady Une and the scientists she had assigned to the project had concurred, and that was why Zechs and the Tallgeese III were here today, and it was also why the Wing Gundam had been fully restored and upgraded. It was believed that the combined firepower of the Mega Beam Cannon and the Buster Rifle would exceed that of Wing Zero's Twin Buster Rifle, and when that combined with the massive release of energy within the fully charged replica reactor that would be enough to create the portal and send them on their journey.

_Inter-dimensional travel courtesy of a giant explosion_, Duo mused, _Not exactly subtle…_

The old Tallgeese scientist appeared on the screen from the bridge of the light cruiser and smiled. "The replica reactor's fired up and ready to go! It's all up to you guys now."

"Not so fast," said Lady Une as she moved onto the screen, "There are some people over hear that would like to speak to you boys first."

Duo smirked; he'd been wondering when they'd get to this.

Behind the lovely brown-haired head of the Preventers was a group of friends that the Gundam pilots had made over the course of the last war. Duo's eyes immediately found his wife, the black haired, emerald eyed Hilde Maxwell.

"Duo," she said, "you'd better be careful, you got that? Don't do anything dumber than you'd normally do!"

Duo smiled and held up his hands in mock-surrender. "Whoa, whoa, easy there! Come on, have a little faith, honey."

To his relief he saw Hilde smile. "Well, since Quatre and Trowa are there to keep you out of trouble, I guess I can."

Duo raised an eyebrow. "You're not counting Wufei in there?"

Hilde shook her head and laughed. "Please, he's just as a big a troublemaker as you are."

"I heard that," Altron's pilot grumbled.

He heard Quatre laugh. "Don't worry, Hilde. I'll keep him in line."

"Thanks, Quatre," Hilde replied, "Duo… I love you. Come back in one piece, you got that?"

Duo grinned. "You got it, honey. After all, we still gotta make Duo Jr.!"

He had the satisfaction of seeing his wife blush. "Yeah, well… we'll get to that when you get back! And if we _do _end up having a boy there's no guarantee we're naming him that!"

Duo chuckled. "I'll bring you around eventually, honey. Take care of yourself."

Hilde moved aside, and a lovely woman with mid-length brown hair and purple eyes took her place.

"Trowa," said Catherine Bloom, "Please, be careful! You have to come back to the circus after this, you got that? Our manager will throw a fit if we lose you; you're the only one I can count on for my act!"

Duo smirked. He'd always wondered what the deal was between Trowa and Catherine. It was more than just coworkers, whatever she might say to the contrary. At the same time, though, it wasn't really romantic, or at least not that he could tell. They seemed to have a brother-sister thing going as far as he could see, with her being the older 'sibling' in the relationship.

"Don't worry, Cathy," said Trowa, and though Duo couldn't see his face he could tell by the pilot's voice that he was smiling, "I'll come back. I promise."

Catherine smiled. "Good. You guys better take care of him, you got that?"

Duo smiled. "Don't worry, we'll look after him."

"When you guys find Heero," said a woman with long, curly brown-blond hair, "tell him I said hello, and that he needs to get his ass back here. Things get boring around here without him to stir up some trouble."

Duo chuckled. "You got it, Sally."

"Do send my regards as well," said a blond-haired woman as she nudged her way forward, "This world's just not the same with only four Gundam pilots in it."

Duo shrugged. "I'll try to remember, Dorothy."

The granddaughter of the late Duke Dermail scowled at him. "You'd best do more than _try_, Duo. Don't forget that I devoted a considerable amount of my personal resources to aid Howard in this project."

"Relax, Dorothy," Quatre chimed in, "We'll tell him you miss him."

Duo saw Dorothy smile and bow. "My thanks, Quatre. Do be careful, all right?"

"I'll try," Quatre replied.

"Master Quatre, you must do more than try," said Rasheed, a tall and muscular Arabian man and the head of the forty-man Maganac Corps, "Your sisters and I will do all we can to manage your company and holdings in your absence, but you are the head of the Winner Family. No matter what happens, you must return safely!"

Duo heard Quatre laugh. "I appreciate the thought Rasheed. Please, don't worry about me. With the four of us working together, along with the data Howard gave us, I know we'll be able to find Heero and then make it back here. Trust me, Rasheed."

Rasheed nodded. "Very well, Master Quatre. Good luck, and we'll see you when you come home!"

"We will pray for the safe return of all of you," said a familiar female voice, "and that of Heero. Please, come back as soon as you are able to."

Duo smiled as a beautiful young woman with long, light brown hair and violet eyes appeared on the screen. He'd been wondering when Vice-Foreign Minister Relena Darlian would chime in. This operation had been given her full backing, after all, and it was only natural that she would take the time to be present for the sendoff.

She'd held up well, but Due knew that Heero's disappearance had been hard on her. At the point that he had vanished it was hard to say where things stood between the two of them. Had they been in love, or were they just very close friends? Duo supposed that that was a question that only Heero and Relena could answer, and the success of this mission would give the two of them the chance to do just that.

"Relax, princess," said Duo, "We'll make it back, and we'll bring Heero with us. Count on it."

He saw Relena smile. "Duo, how many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?"

Duo chuckled. "I know, but I can't help myself. You make it too much fun."

Relena shook her head. "Nevertheless, I must insist that you stop that."

Duo shrugged and smirked. "I'll give it a try, princess."

"Do you have a message that you want us to give him?" asked Quatre.

Relena shook his head. "What I have to say to him I want to say in person."

"We'll make sure you get to do that," said Trowa.

"Is everyone done here?" asked Wufei, sounding a little annoyed, "We need to get underway."

"Yes, I supposed it's time," said Lady Une, "Remember, once you find Heero share the data that Howard uploaded to your mobile suits. Using that you all should be able to find a way to make it back here."

"Understood," said Quatre.

"Howard," said Zechs, "pull the ship back. Noin and I will line up our shots now. Once you give us the all clear we'll open fire."

"You got it," said Howard, "You heard him, everyone. Let's put some distance between us and them."

The white light cruiser began to break off while the four Gundams spread out to give the Tallgeese III and Wing Gundam a firing lane. Duo could feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing up as excitement and anticipation coursed through his veins, along with a healthy dose of fear.

_Over two and a half years_, he thought with a grin as he put his helmet on, _and we're finally getting this show on the road!_

After a couple minutes Howard's voice came over the radio. "Okay, we're clear! It's all up to you guys, now! Bon voyage!"

"Understood," Zechs replied, "Acquiring target and charging."

"Same here," said Noin.

Both Tallgeese III and the Wing Gundam raised their fearsome weapons. The shoulder-mounted Mega Beam Cannon split open and extended, with golden-yellow energy running up and down the opening. Meanwhile the barrel of the Buster Rifle glowed with a similar gathering power, and both weapons were already sighted in on their target.

"Fire on my mark," said Zechs, "Three, two, one... mark!"

Twin blasts of awesome destructive power tore across the void and slammed into the replica reactor. In the blink of an eye a titanic explosion ensued, with crimson energy flooding out in all directions, so bright that it almost overwhelmed Deathscythe Omega's visual sensors. The Gundam rumbled as the shockwave hit it, and Duo was glad he had his helmet on.

His eyes narrowing, he smiled as he saw what they'd all been hoping for. "There it is!"

Just like the data recordings from Howard's ship had show the last time, the portal had formed. It was a brilliant rift in the void, shifting all across the color spectrum in a brilliant vortex of light that managed to shine even through the massive crimson blast that had given birth to it.

"Go, now!" ordered Zechs.

Duo didn't need to be told twice. Hitting the thrusters, he braced himself as Deathscythe Omega rushed headlong into the swirling mass of energy, with the other three Gundams flying right with him. The violent shaking that had overtaken the Gundam increased the closer he got to the portal, but there was no way that Duo was going to let that throw him off course.

"Come on, big guy!" he said, "We got this!"

Pushing the engines harder, the self-proclaimed God of Death pressed forward. The shaking was growing almost unbearable, but he powered through, reaching the portal…

…and plunging through head-long with the other three Gundams right behind him.

**Preview for next time!**

_The date is October 2__nd__, Cosmic Era 73. While the peace that resulted from the Treaty of Junius Seven has held it now stands on thin ice as both the Earth Alliance and ZAFT have built up their forces and improved them with new technologies. With the desire to discuss the PLANTs new armaments program, Orb Chief Representative Cagalli Yula Athha and her body guard, the undercover Athrun Zala, have journeyed to the new Coordinator colony of Armory One to meet with Supreme Council Chairman Gilbert Durandal with plans to observe the launch of the new battleship Minerva and to try to calm rising tensions. However, the top secret Earth Alliance organization known as Phantom Pain has their eyes on the colony and the new mobile suits being developed there. As the shadowy group launches a surprise attack and throws the colony into chaos a reborn mobile suit, piloted by a living legend, enters the battlefield. Next time, on "Destiny's Call", Episode Two: Armory One._

"_Mission accepted."_

_You know damn well who said that!_

**Author's Notes: **Hey, how's everyone doing? I know it hasn't been that long, and I'd originally planned on taking a little bit of a break before getting to work on Part Two, but I just couldn't help myself!

The appearances of the Gundams are based off of primarily their designs from _Endless Waltz _except for the personal touches I added. I know a bunch of you guys were hoping Zechs and some of the others would tag along too, but that's not my plan. Don't worry, they'll have their roles to play in the future, but for now this show belongs to the boys of Operation Meteor (and I don't mean me!)!

I know some of you were also hoping or speculating on the specs of Heero's upgraded mobile suit. Rest assured, you'll get the full, official rundown on Wing Gundam Zero Albion soon enough! That's not the only thing that's gotten an upgrade either; the _Archangel_'s going to have some new tricks up her sleeve as well, and I'm not just referring to the ability to travel underwater.

I don't have a cover prepped for this story yet, I'm hoping a certain reader can help me out with that in due time. You know who you are, buddy!

Welcome back, my friends. Well met and reacquainted.

Until next time! Please review!


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Notes: **Damn, got this one out faster than I thought! Seriously, I got on a hot streak over the weekend, I was really anticipating that it would be at least a month before I released the second chapter. The story's young, but already the SEED Destiny canon is taking some hits. By the way, I've got a special teaser in store for you guys in the last scene of the chapter. You'll know it when you see it!

Two songs for this chapter, in order of appearance: "Last Impression" from _Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz_, and "The Only Thing I Know For Real" from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.

Enjoy!

**Episode Two: Armory One**

**October 2****nd****, C.E. 73**

Leaning back in his chair, Colonel Nazara smiled as he looked at the main bridge monitor. "So that's one of ZAFT's _Hel_-class cruisers, huh? The Intelligence file photos don't do it justice."

At three-hundred meters in length, the Coordinator warship was an impressive sight. With a tapered bow that eventually flared out at the halfway point of the ship before curving inward again as the hull went to the engines, the black cruiser was a product of the arms limitations presented by the Treaty of Junius Seven. With a sleek profile and relatively low bridge, the vessel had been designed to operate as a task force command ship. Capable of carrying seven mobile suits, one of which per Defense Council decree always had to be a Recon GINN while doubtlessly the rest were of the new ZAKU model, it was a highly versatile warship. Its armaments were heavier than those of the smaller _Nazca_-class destroyers, and were composed of four 177cm high-energy beam cannons, one pair mounted at the bow and one pair where the hull flared out amidships, four 100mm dual railguns mounted in a similar configuration, twelve 58mm CIWS, and ten Multipurpose Vertical Launch Systems (MVLS) along the central dorsal hull capable of launching both ship-to-ship and anti-air missiles. The vessel's speed was actually comparable to that of the _Nazca_-class destroyer, but this came at the price of lighter armor than would be typical for a ship of its size.

The cruiser floating mere kilometers ahead of the Colonel's warship was identified by its IFF beacon as the _Vidar_, one of the latest vessels to come out of the L5 shipyards. The fact that it had not hailed Nazara's vessel indicated that the cloaking systems were still fully operational, which was definitely a good sign given the importance they had in today's mission.

_Just keep floating by_, he thought, his smile taking on a cruel edge, _By the time you become aware of our presence your fate will already be sealed._

The field commander of the secret Earth Alliance organization Phantom Pain, who was also known as the Phantom Commander, tapped his fingers on the arm of his chair as he watched the ZAFT cruiser fly by. Appearing to be a man in his late twenties or early thirties, his facial features were obscured by a dark grey and red mask-helmet that covered his upper face and most of his head. Out of the sides and rear of the mask spilt long blond hair that fell slightly past his shoulders. His uniform was the same design as an Earth Alliance officer's uniform, except that it was primarily dark grey and black with yellow and red trim. He was supremely confident that the warship he was on would continue to escape detection, and that confidence was not unwarranted.

The namesake vessel of a class of new, top secret battleships, the _Girty Lue _was a formidable warship. It was 380 meters in length, making it smaller than either of the _Archangel_-class battleships built in the last war but slightly larger than ZAFT's new battleship _Minerva_, and it was an impressive design. When visible it had a robust appearance, with a bulky forward section that tapered off towards the middle before flaring back out again for the bridge and engine sections. The front section of the blue-hulled warship had an impressive four linear catapults for launching mobile suits in rapid succession, stacked in two pairs. The front was also where the vessel's only beam weapons were mounted; six Gottfried Mk.71 225cm high-energy dual beam cannons. Three were mounted on each side, with one on the top, one on the bottom, and one on the flank. For anti-air defense the warship employed 16 Igelstellung 75mm Automatic Multi-Barrel CIWS and 38 vertical missile launchers, although the latter could also be employed in a limited ant-ship role at close range.

The reason the _Girty Lue _was not showing up on the _Vidar_'s sensors, or even visually for that matter, was due to a blatant violation of the terms agreed to by the Earth Alliance when it had signed the Treaty of Junius Seven; the vessel was equipped with a Mirage Colloid stealth system. Working in conjunction with that stealth system was a special gas propulsion system that could be used to move the vessel with heatless jets of gas, thus keeping the ship from showing up on any thermal scans. In order to travel for an extended period of time the _Girty Lue _mounted arms on either side which held extra fuel tanks, which could be detached at any time. Rounding out the warship's features was a special rocket anchor system designed to allow the vessel to latch itself on to large objects such as asteroids.

Six mobile suits were in the warship's hangar at the moment, although the ship had the capacity to carry more than that. Four of them were GAT-02L2 Dagger Ls, an upgraded version of the mass production Strike-Daggers that had been introduced in the last war. The other two were special models, one reserved for the Colonel and one for a mercenary pilot that had been included in the operation. Nazara eagerly anticipated adding to the _Girty Lue_'s mobile suit count with the fruits of today's mission.

The battleship operated under the aegis of Phantom Pain rather than the regular Earth Alliance fleet. The black organization, officially designated the 81st Autonomous Mobile Group, had expanded significantly since the end of the Bloody Valentine War. It remained the primary entity in charge of the Biological CPU 'Extended' program and scores of other top secret research and development programs, but the true nature of its growth and operations was now far beyond what it had once been. _Girty Lue _was now the flagship of what had become known as the Earth Alliance's Black Fleet, a force of warships that was completely off the standard naval registry, an entity that officially did not exist in order to provide the government with deniability. The ships operated without markings or typical IFF beacons, instead using special frequencies and signals to identify themselves in operations, and were under the strict jurisdiction, officially nonexistent though it may be, of Phantom Pain.

As the Phantom Commander, the organization's military leader, Colonel Nazara reported not to the Earth Alliance Executive Command or to the Atlantic Federation High Command or President but directly to Lord Djibril, the head of both Blue Cosmos and the larger shadow military-industrial organization known as LOGOS. His position as the operational executor of Djibril's will meant that even though he was a Colonel, the Phantom Commander could commandeer military resources under the control of full Alliance Admirals and even supersede their authority, a fact that caused no small amount of resentment amongst the regular officers of OMNI Enforcer. This authority was not just limited to the space forces; Earth Alliance surface divisions could also be appropriated as the situation demanded, though not as easily if they were Eurasian or East Asian units. In addition to that, Phantom Pain maintained its own Black Army, a secret force which mirrored the purpose of the space-based Black Fleet.

The organization's resources and capabilities even extended beyond the realm of the military units commanded by Colonel Nazara. Over the past two years Phantom Pain had grown to include its own foreign and domestic intelligence branches, working independently of Atlantic Federation services such as the CIA or NSA. It maintained a homeland paramilitary force that operated under the title of the National Safety and Security Service, which supplemented the FBI and for all intents and purposes acted as a secret police organization. Through a government front Phantom Pain even operated a special national youth program known as the Patriot Youth, an organization with male-exclusive membership composed of boys between the ages of 13 to 17. Publicly the program's mission statement was 'to empower the nation's young men and prepare them for a life of service to their country in every aspect.' In reality it sought to build up a pool of recruits for both Phantom Pain and the broader ranks of OMNI Enforcer, and in the event of war all its members, regardless of age, would be drafted for military duties. Membership was currently voluntary, though powerful incentives were offered for parents to enroll any male children of eligible age into the program as quickly as possible, and a bill was even now being crafted in the Atlantic Federation Congress that would soon make joining the Patriot Youth a required legal obligation for all who qualified. Similar measures had failed to gain traction in the Eurasian Federation or the Republic of East Asia, which was a real shame as far as the Colonel was concerned; it would be nice to tap into the vast manpower reserves of both nations.

"Whatever you say," quipped a man floating off to the right of the Colonel.

Beneath his mask Nazara scowled as he looked over at the speaker. "Something on your mind, Rodrigues?"

Samuel Rodrigues, also known as 'Jetstream Sam' or less commonly by his codename 'Minuano', folded his arms and shrugged. Half-Brazilian and half-Japanese, Sam was not a member of either Phantom Pain or OMNI Enforcer. Tall and well built, his black and red uniform doing little to hide his athletic figure, he was a warrior for hire. His dark brown hair, tied back in a pony tail save for a few bangs, mirrored his sharp brown eyes, though right now the latter had a rather bored look in them. On his right hip a typical pistol was holstered, but on his left side the man wore a katana. It was an odd choice of personal armament to say the least, but the Colonel had stopped questioning it some time ago; Sam was a lethal practitioner of the form known as Yagyu Shinkage-ryu, an art learned from his father's Kenjutsu dojo in Rio.

An unintended consequence of the Treaty of Junius Seven was the considerable increase in mercenary organizations, known in the market as Private Military Companies or PMCs. These had resulted from the limitations of the armed forces of the major powers, and while officially private security personnel were employed only to supplement official security operations such as policing, embassy protection, and aid convoy escort, the organizations also provided a convenient way for nations to bolster their fighting forces if they were willing to contract the groups for their services. The companies were completely legal, and no provision of the treaty came close to addressing them or their recent increase in proliferation and activity. Sam was a member of one of these new PMCs, a group known as Desperado Enforcement LLC.

Desperado was based in the Atlantic Federation, more specifically in Delaware. Although they maintained a handful of security contracts in that area and over in D.C., most of their business was actually conducted out of the country, and their financials were handled by a separate holding company in the notorious tax haven of the Cayman Islands. The firm was very well funded thanks to operations and contracts it had for security of development projects in the African Community and South African Union, and it also handled VIP protection and assisted with internal policing in the Earth Alliance's L2 colonies. However, the company was also suspected of offering under-the-table services to drug cartels and political extremist groups, and rumors flew of aid money and resources embezzled in some of their African operations. The firm would take practically any job and were known for their discretion, qualities that made them attractive to groups like Blue Cosmos and LOGOS. With funding from the latter, Desperado had branched out into anti-smuggler and anti-pirate patrols in outer space and were even rumored to be aiding Earth Alliance military patrols in the L1 and L2 regions along with the Lunar Perimeter.

Sam was a member of the top elite core of Desperado, a group of mercenary captains known as the Winds of Destruction. While he could wield authority over Desperado resources and soldiers Sam actually had a reputation for working independently. He was known to seek out powerful opponents in his contracts and had a reputation for favoring his katana over firearms. With anyone else such a fighting style would be suicidal, but his mastery of the sword made him an exception. Although Nazara had operational command over Sam for this mission, the fact that the contract was actually under Djibril and LOGOS made the mercenary's status somewhat of a gray area, and as thus he enjoyed much more freedom than a regular Alliance soldier or even a member of Phantom Pain, and that included the freedom to mouth off and quip at the Colonel.

"It's just a ship," Sam replied, "Nothing a good mobile suit pilot can't dispatch."

"Perhaps," said Nazara, "but your machine isn't designed for anti-ship combat."

"It doesn't matter," said Sam, smirking, "I'm still good for it, and you know it."

Nazara forced a chuckle. "It sounds like you're getting impatient. That's not like you, Minuano."

Sam shook his head. "Hardly. Just worried that this job won't be any fun. ZAFT's force at L4 is made up mostly of green troops."

"A tactical advantage for us," said Nazara, "and one that we will exploit to the fullest. This isn't one of your African or South American shithole brawls, Sam; it's a military operation. A black operation, but an operation nonetheless. I expect you to act professional and in line with the mission."

The Colonel scowled again as he saw that familiar smug, mocking, shit-eating grin appear on the mercenary's face. "You're the boss."

_Not as much as I'd like to be as far as you're concerned_, he mentally fumed.

"So," said Sam, "how long until this show gets on the road?"

"We wait until our operatives send us the signal," he said.

Sam frowned. "Those three… can we count on them?"

Under the mask Nazara glared at him. "_They _are not your concern."

"If the success of this mission and my paycheck is counting on them, then I disagree," Sam shot back, "I've seen them on this ship and in exercises. I'm not impressed."

"Duly noted," Nazara growled, "and irrelevant. They are perfectly capable of the tasks that have been given to them. More to the point, as you said so yourself ZAFT's force in this area is largely green, which means that they will pose little obstacle for _those _three."

Sam shrugged. "Whatever you say."

"I suggest you get down to your mobile suit," said Nazara, "It won't be too much longer."

Sam nodded and headed for the exit.

_Good riddance_, he silently grumbled, _That man's insolence cannot be checked._

As much as the mercenary's disrespect irritated him, the Colonel knew that the man's skills were too valuable to cast aside. He was one of the best pilots taking part in this operation, and would prove to be an important asset if something unexpected should occur in the coming fight.

He tapped the keys on the small console mounted on the right arm of his chair and the ship's chief mobile suit mechanic appeared on the screen. "Crew Chief Summers, status report."

"All mobile suits are fully armed and ready for action," Nicholas Summers replied.

Nazara nodded. "Good. I'll be taking the Nosferatu out soon enough. Carry on."

As the Crew Chief disappeared from the screen the Colonel turned his attention back to the main monitor. The _Vidar _was still on the screen, but Nazara's gaze was focused past the cruiser and toward the hourglass-shaped colony behind it. He gave a cruel smile as he imagined the chaos that would soon overtake it.

_Armory One_, he thought, _the newest gem in the Coordinator crown. Enjoy your jewel while you still can, Durandal, because I'm about to soak it in blood!_

….

In many ways, Armory One was much like any other PLANT colony. It bore the same signature hourglass design, with a central shaft 30 kilometers in length running through the two sections and a blocky docking and control hub where the halves met. The central hub was connected to two large external mirrors which reflected sunlight into the living areas. Said living areas, one at the top of the colony and one at the bottom, were each 10 kilometers in diameter. Although it was a very new colony the Durandal administration had pulled out all the stops to make sure it had a large and viable population, and as of the inaugural census the amount of people on Armory One stood at 175,479, smaller than the average population of a Coordinator colony but with plenty of room for growth.

However, the similarities rapidly faded when one was confronted by the stark differences. One of the most obvious contrasts was the colony's location. While all other PLANT colonies were at L5, Armory One was the first of its kind to be constructed at L4. It was in a stable location not far from the debris field and graveyard of ruined Earth Alliance colonies from the last war, including the notorious Mendel. Another difference was its very name and the purpose it implied. While plenty of PLANT colonies housed segments of the arms industry, Armory One was the first to be specifically devoted to weapons manufacture. As a result much of the population was either directly part of ZAFT or employed in the arms industry and supporting the military, although there was still a vibrant civilian infrastructure and culture.

The interior layout of the colony was quite a sight to behold. In the lower half, the point where the central shaft met the disk housing that section's population was actually a large island. A thriving city was built on that island, and although plenty of people lived on the other side of the artificial lake's shore the island city was the beating heart of the colony. The lake served purposes beyond providing a stunning bit of scenery and a pleasant place to swim; a large quantity of freshwater fish had been brought in and provided a steady source of food, while the water itself was good for drinking and also provided a good environment for the testing of amphibious and aquatic weapons.

Shinn Asuka didn't care about any of that at the moment. A sixteen-year-old Coordinator with black hair, reddish chestnut eyes, and a slender build, the young ZAFT pilot's only concern was the fact that he was running late. Still dressed in civilian clothing, the young man knew he looked disheveled, and mentally berated himself for oversleeping today of all days.

From nearly a block away he could hear Lunamaria yelling at him. "Shinn Asuka! You're late! You heard me say Hitonmaru-maru Hangar Six, right?"

"I heard you!" he shouted back, picking up the pace.

He then shook his head and muttered under his breath. "Man, Lunamaria's such a nag!"

His eyes focused on the dark green jeep with his friends up ahead, the young Coordinator failed to pay attention to his more immediate surroundings, and as a young blonde woman wearing a blue and white dress stepped out in front of him on the sidewalk he slammed right into her, taking both of them to the ground.

Reflexively he closed his eyes and reached out blindly as they fell. His hand did not find pavement, but something else. Something softer, rounder…

_Oh, shit_, he thought as he opened his eyes, _don't tell me I…_

Sure enough, there was his right hand…

…grabbing the girl's left breast.

Beneath him he saw her violet eyes flash with anger and her face flush red, and as he felt the heat rushing to his face he could not react as the girl slapped him across the face.

"Get off of me!" she yelled at him.

"I'm sorry!" cried Shinn as he scurried back, "It was an accident! I didn't mean to grab you like that."

The girl scowled at him and folded her arms. "Hmph. Pervert."

"Hey!" said Shinn, still blushing, "I told you it was an accident!"

"Hey, come on, Stella," said a male voice, "We don't have all day!"

Looking up and to the right, Shinn saw two young men looking at him and the girl. Both appeared to be around the same age as the girl and were wearing civilian clothing. The one who had spoken had green hair and bright yellow eyes, while the other had light blue hair and blue eyes. The former looked irritated, while the latter just looked amused.

"Stella," said the green-haired boy, "Do you want to get left behind?"

The blue-haired boy laughed. "That's what you get for being absent-minded, dummy!"

"All right," said Stella, brushing herself off as she got to her feet, "I'm coming!"

Shinn just watched as the girl joined her apparent friends, lost for what to do. She hadn't even acknowledged his apology.

"Hurry up already!" shouted a familiar female voice.

Shinn jumped, remembering that he had to get a move on. He got up and ran for the jeep.

Four people were already in it. In the driver's seat was a young man in a green ZAFT technician's uniform, with brown hair that had a bright red splotch at the front, named Vino Dupre. To his left was the girl that had been yelling at him, a fiery 17 year-old girl with red-violet hair, her indigo eyes glaring at him in frustration. Her name was Lunamaria Hawke, and she wore the red uniform that was the mark of an elite ZAFT pilot. In the back were two young men, one wearing another red uniform and the other in a green technician's uniform. The former had long blonde hair and light blue eyes, and he had a rather bored expression on his face. Shinn knew that Rey Za Burrel was calm and aloof under most circumstances, but the young man felt that he could've shown at least a little excitement given what was happening at the colony. The other young man in the back seat was a dark skinned mechanic by the name of Yolan Kent.

"Shinn!" snapped Lunamaria as he approached the jeep, "You don't even have your uniform on! What's wrong with you?"

"Look, I'm sorry," he said, knowing he just had to weather this storm. Lunamaria was actually a very nice girl, but heaven help anyone who ticked her off.

"What happened over there?" she asked.

"Looks like he copped a feel," chuckled Yolan.

"Good for him!" laughed Vino.

"Would you guys cut it out?" pleaded Shinn as his face burned red.

"Get in already," said Lunamaria, "We need to get going!"

"Right," said Shinn as he climbed into the back, "Hey, Rey, can you scoot over? It's tight back here."

His quiet friend simply nodded and moved towards the middle to give Shinn some room. He had barely settled in and closed the door when he saw Lunamaria turn to Vino.

"Step on it, Vino!" she said, "If we're late today the Captain's really gonna let us have it!"

"You got it," Vino replied as he hit the gas, and the force of the acceleration pushed Shinn back in his seat.

_Well_, Shinn thought as he fumbled for his seatbelt, the episode with that blonde girl still playing out in his head, _at least today can't get any worse…_

….

Sting Oakley, the young man with the green hair, smirked as he watched the jeep speed off down the road. "Ha! What a bunch of fools!"

"Yeah," said the blue haired boy, Auel Neider, with a laugh, "Just look at them! They're acting like the war really is over."

Sting chuckled. "They'll find out real soon that it's not over yet. Isn't that right, Stella?"

Stella Loussier nodded, though unlike the other two she wasn't smiling or laughing. "Right."

Sting started out down the sidewalk, with the other two already falling in behind him. "Let's go. We've got a schedule to keep."

_Have your fun while you can, Coordinators_, he thought, _because we're about to crash your party!_

….

Of all the things she would end up doing with her life, Miriallia Haw had never imagined that becoming a spy would be one of them. Now 18 years old, the young woman had changed very little since the end of the Bloody Valentine War. She still kept her brown hair a manageable mid-length, and while her ocean blue eyes were slightly hardened by her experiences in the last conflict they still hadn't lost their kindness or their earnest energy.

_I gotta hand it to the Wolf and the Tiger_, she thought as she looked down at her forged press pass, _They did one hell of a job with my forged documents. Sometimes I even forget that they're fakes!_

Operating under the alias of Marilyn Peterson, she had slipped into Armory One as part of the press corps that would be covering the launch of the new ZAFT battleship and its mobile suits. At the moment she was milling around by the dock that the warship was sitting at, with a clear view of the vessel.

At 350 meters in length the LHM-BB01 transatompheric battleship _Minerva _may not have been as large as the _Archangel_, but it was still an impressive sight. The vessel had a sleek design, with a low bow that rose up towards the central body and reached its peak at the bridge. A large stabilizer wing ran under the ship, much like the _Archangel_. Aft of the bridge there was a small landing pad. The battleship's color scheme was primarily dark grey, with some black trim at the bow and red trim along the stabilizer wing and towards the rear of the hull.

As the newest warship in ZAFT's fleet, the _Minerva _was very well armed. Mounted at the bow of the ship and currently concealed under a shutter was the vessel's QZX-1 Tannhäuser Positron Blaster Cannon, reminiscent of the twin Lohengrins found on the _Archangel_. For anti-air and anti-missile defense the ship carried 12 40mm CIWS. Concealed underneath a shutter in front of one of the catapult on the main body was a heavy M10 Isolde 42cm Triple Cannon. Mounted further back above the two standard linear catapults on either side of the bridge were two XM47 Tristan Dual Beam Cannons. The ship also carried four torpedo launchers along with several missile launchers carrying interceptor, ground, and space missiles. Augmenting the ship's capabilities were anti-beam depth charge launchers, again like those found on the _Archangel_. Its primary mobiles suits would be the prototypes that would be on display later today, but provisions were also made to accommodate mass production models like the ZAKU-series units and the older GuAIZ R.

The ship's impressive abilities weren't just limited to its firepower. It had laminated armor which made it capable of withstanding punishing amounts of fire. The vessel had a prototype Deuterion Beam Energy Transfer system, a unique device that allowed it to transmit energy to nearby mobile suits and recharge their batteries even in the midst of combat. The battleship could also be equipped with a special space booster that would allow it to breach the Earth's atmosphere and make it to outer space without assistance from a mass driver.

Miriallia had initially been surprised that the new battleship's capabilities had been made public so quickly. However, as Eric Bristow had explained to her, ZAFT had gone through with the full disclosure in order to show that the _Minerva _was fully in line with the terms of the Treaty of Junius Seven, and it had resulted in the ship being unofficially referred to as a 'treaty battleship'. At the same time it also sent a clear message to the rest of the Cosmic Era; even with their hands tied by the treaty limitations the Coordinators could still build powerful weapons. Stuck in a position of quantitative inferiority they had decided to work in favor of gaining a qualitative edge instead, much like the last war, and the treaty battleship and her mobile suits were testament to that doctrine.

Rumor had it that Chairman Durandal and the ZAFT top brass believed that the _Minerva _and its new mobile suits, when working concert, would be a match for the _Archangel _and Wing Zero. Miriallia could only smirk and shake her head at such a notion. If Durandal was under such an impression then he was severely underestimating not only the power of the legendary mobile suit and battleship but also the people who operated them.

_Heero could wipe the floor with all of them in his sleep_, she thought, _and that's even before Wing Zero was upgraded into the Wing Zero Albion. Captain Ramius and her crew have far more experience than any ZAFT could put aboard the Minerva… and ZAFT has no idea that the Archangel's been upgraded as well._

Of course, it wouldn't be wise to give voice to those opinions at the moment. For now she'd keep them to herself and focus on the mission at hand.

Even though the launching of the battleship and its opening trials would be public both Eric Bristow and Andrew Waltfeld had decided it would be good to have some of Terminal's operatives observing them firsthand. Miriallia made up half of that equation; she was spending her time on Armory One examining as much of the battleship as she could get away with, as well as digging up information on its new mobile suits as well as the military resources devoted to the colony in general. She'd been on station for about a week and was quite pleased with the amount of photos and data she'd been able to submit to the Terminal higher ups for review. The second half of the observation group was even now travelling towards the colony, and he would be monitoring the _Minerva _and her mobile suits from a safe distance as they conducted exercises.

She had to keep herself from smiling as she thought of the man and machine that would soon be arriving here. If ZAFT knew just who and what were coming to pay them a covert visit she could only imagine their reaction.

_Considering what he did to them in the last war_, she thought, _and what he'll be flying, it's definitely a good thing that he'll be keeping a low profile. It would've been better if we'd sent one of the Valkyrie's girls in a Wraith, but he wanted to check things out for himself… I hope those upgrades work as advertised._

Bringing her camera up, she snapped another photo of the _Minerva_, focusing on her bridge section. Checking the result on the device's screen to make sure it was a good shot, she furtively looked around her for a moment before remote transferring the picture to her cell phone. She then pulled out the device and quickly did another transfer, this time sending it to a nearby civilian satellite. From there the photo would be routed through a few more satellites before reaching its ultimate destination.

She hoped that Terminal could make good use of what she was sending them. Tensions were running high at the moment between the Earth Alliance and ZAFT, and the launching of the _Minerva _and her new mobile suits would not likely help matters. Right now Terminal needed every scrap of information it could get on both powers, and she was determined to do her part.

….

"Chairman Durandal," said Jennifer, the red-haired woman currently acting as his secretary for his time on Armory One, "the Orb Chief Representative and her bodyguard are here to see you now."

Sitting in the office that had been arranged for his stay here, the Supreme Council Chairman nodded. His sharp brown eyes had an eager light in them, though his overall composure was as calm and welcoming as ever. His black hair flowed long and free, but it did not detract from his orderly appearance and the fine overcoat and tunic he wore for today's pleasantries.

He smiled as he responded to the young lady. "Please, send them in."

"At once, Chairman," she replied.

Exiting out of the screen on his computer, he stood up and flattened out a wrinkle in his jacket as the door opened and the Orb delegation stepped into the office.

He smiled at his two guests. "Welcome, Princess!"

Now 18 years old, Orb's Chief Representative had become something of an icon due to her actions in the last war, and would've been recognizable to anyone. Wearing the maroon suits that were typical of the Athha family, the masculine attire did not at all detract from her feminine beauty. She wore her blonde hair just like she had in the last war, flowing down to her shoulders. Her amber eyes had a fiery spark in them, though it was tempered by the responsibility that came with her station. She appeared to be very much in shape, and Durandal wondered if she could still pilot a mobile suit. It certainly would not have surprised him if that were indeed the case.

_As lovely as ever, daughter of Uzumi_, he thought before turning his attention to her bodyguard, _and as for this young man… how very interesting._

His name on the guest registry had been Alex Dino, but Durandal was not fooled. He'd play along for appearance's sake and to avoid an incident, but he knew exactly who he was looking at. Dressed in dark grey and black civilian clothes, the dark-blue haired and blue-eyed young man was quite clearly the famous Athrun Zala. Durandal was frankly surprised that no one else had recognized him since he and Cagalli had arrived on the colony; he chalked it up to there being very few veterans of the last war at Armory One.

_Members of the previous combat generation would know him right off the bat_, he thought, _but in these past two years there's been a changing of the guard in ZAFT. Many veterans left for civilian life, and the main ranks are full of new faces. Even with his fame I suppose it's natural that the troops stationed here have not realized who he is. After all, technically he's still wanted as a traitor; no one would expect him to show up at a PLANT colony, let alone one devoted specifically to producing weapons for ZAFT._

"It's an honor to meet you, Chairman Durandal," said Cagalli as she bowed her head, her bodyguard following suit.

Durandal shook his head. "The honor is mine, Princess. Thank you for coming here today. I know it's not a trip made lightly."

"It's quite all right," Cagalli replied, "I know you're a very busy man, Chairman, and I thank you for making time for us."

"Not at all," said Durandal, "Compared to the work you did in the last war and in the peace process I believe my own deeds pale in comparison to yours, Princess."

He saw her try and fail to completely suppress a grimace, and her tone rose slightly as she spoke. "I'm sorry, Chairman, but would you please stop calling me 'Princess'? I stopped using that title when I took over my father's duty as Chief Representative. Call me Lady Cagalli or Representative Athha."

'Alex' gently nudged her. "Cagalli, I'm sorry, but that was rude!"

"But I…" she said, her frustration showing.

Durandal raised his hands and gestured for calm. "No, it's my fault. I'm afraid I didn't fully consider my words and their affect on you. I meant no harm by it. I apologize, Lady Cagalli. It won't happen again."

Cagalli nodded. "All right. As long as we have an understanding."

"Yes, we do," Durandal replied before turning to 'Alex', "So this is your bodyguard? Do you always critique your charge?"

"I'm not just her bodyguard," the young man replied, "I'm also her assistant, and Lady Cagalli has asked me to aid her in any way I can. That includes pointing out when a mistake may have been made."

"I see," said Durandal, smiling as he decided to test the waters, "I'm sure you're a very capable assistant. Forgive me if this is presumptuous, but I can't help but feel as though I should know you. Have we met before?"

The bodyguard looked down. "No, I don't believe we have."

_As expected_, he thought, _but the day is young. If I can get him to admit the truth it may lead to something worthwhile._

Durandal nodded. "I see. You reminded me of someone, but it must just be a passing resemblance. Forgive me."

"It's fine," 'Alex' replied.

"Chairman Durandal," said Cagalli, "I don't mean to be blunt, but I would like to move things along."

"Of course," said Durandal, "and please, feel free to speak frankly throughout your visit, Lady Cagalli. Simple honesty is quite refreshing nowadays."

"Very well, then," said Cagalli, "You have a reputation as a thorough and thoughtful man, Chairman Durandal, so I'm sure that you read the summary that I sent with my formal request for a meeting."

Durandal nodded. "Of course. You were quite eloquent in voicing your concerns regarding the current state of affairs between my nation and the Earth Alliance, along with the risk of escalation to the point of open conflict. Given the suffering Orb endured during the war I know that this is a deeply personal matter for you, and I have great respect for that."

Cagalli bowed her head. "Thank you, Chairman. I would be remiss if I didn't address the hardship that the PLANTs endured as well, especially the Bloody Valentine Tragedy. What happened that day must never be repeated again."

Durandal gave her a solemn smile. "In that we are in full agreement, Lady Cagalli. I only wish that President Copeland was as eloquent and sincere in his concerns for the continued peace in the Earth Sphere as you are."

"The Atlantic Federation is a separate matter right now," said Cagalli firmly, "Chairman, I know that your offer to host my visit at this particular colony on the day of the _Minerva_'s official launching ceremony was no accident. I can appreciate the desire to showcase ZAFT's newest battleship and mobile suits, but I'm afraid that that is actually part of the problem."

"The Earth Alliance could very easily see this as a provocation," 'Alex' chimed in, "and that could serve to intensify the growing arms race between them and the PLANTs!"

"All that is not even counting the other matter I brought up in my summary," Cagalli pressed, "A new armaments program is one thing, but to have Orb citizens involved in it is quite another!"

Durandal raised his hands once again for calm. "Lady Cagalli, if I may? Please, trust me when I say that I truly do appreciate the concerns that you have. I would like to do all I can in your time here to allay those fears, and I believe that there is a better way for me to do that than to keep our meetings limited to offices and conference rooms."

Cagalli raised an eyebrow. "Chairman, what are you getting at?"

Durandal smiled. "Simply put, I believe words alone would be insufficient for this matter. Would you mind coming with me?"

The bodyguard's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Where are you taking us?"

"There's no need for worry," said Durandal, "I'd just like to take you both down to the facilities where the mobile suits and warship have been assembled. It's quite safe, I promise you that."

"Why show us the new weapons before the official unveiling?" asked Cagalli.

"Consider it a gesture of good faith," he replied, "I would like to further the trust between us, and I believe that showing you some of the fruits of our program ahead of schedule will aid in explaining my reasons for these developments. What say you, Lady Cagalli?"

After a moment she nodded. "Very well, Chairman Durandal. Lead on."

….

As a ZAFT warship the _Minerva_ shared several interior similarities with previous vessels of the Coordinator military, but at the same time plenty of marked differences. Her bridge was a hallmark of this trait, a fusion of what had worked in the past and newer, more efficient design traits. Like the command centers of the _Nazca_-class destroyers and the newer _Hel_-class cruisers it had a mostly white color scheme, giving it a rather sterile feel. Proceeding from the entrance at the back it had a descending layout. At the uppermost level there were two rows of consoles for support operators, one row on each side, while in the middle there was a table with a large interactive screen to allow for strategic planning, along with a chair for visiting VIPs. At the middle level was the Captain's chair, putting the commanding officer at the center of all bridge operations and within earshot of any immediate subordinate. Finally there was the forward, lowest section with the main operating consoles, including helm, primary weapons, sensors and navigation, and the XO's position. Given the _Minerva_'s nature as a battleship rather than a smaller cruiser, destroyer, or frigate the bridge was considerably larger and more open, allowing for greater freedom of movement and capacity for additional personnel or visiting dignitaries.

That last feature was one that her Captain could definitely appreciate. Talia Gladys could quite clearly recall her time on the _Laurasia_-class frigate _Natta_ prior to this assignment, and while she bore her former command no ill will she was absolutely enamored with the _Minerva_. The bridge on the _Laurasia_-class frigate had always felt a little on the small and tight side to her, often times making her feel like she was stuffed in with her crew in an armed can of sardines. By contrast the space afforded to the _Minerva_'s command center was downright luxurious.

Twenty-nine years old, Captain Talia Gladys was a very lovely woman. Her white uniform fit her quite well, and while it wasn't meant to call attention to her curved and in-shape figure it certainly didn't detract from it. Her mid-length brown hair, capped by her Captain's hat, was swept forward like the wings of a hawk, framing steely gray eyes that could be at one moment warm and compassionate and at the next firm and strict. She had a reputation as a kind but disciplined woman, an officer who looked after her subordinates but at the same time was not afraid to sanction them should the need arise. Duty was a matter of vital importance to her and she would carry hers out regardless of personal cost, but at the same time she would do all she could to make sure that her subordinates did not suffer for it if possible.

Talia was also a woman who preferred to stand on her own two feet and advance without preferential treatment, which was why she actually had mixed feelings about her new assignment. Yes, the _Minerva_ was the newest and most advanced ship in the ZAFT fleet, and it was an honor and a privilege to be selected as her commanding officer. However, her ascendance to this position had not followed the natural course.

Officially, Captains in the ZAFT fleet were considered to be of equal rank. Unofficially, though, there was a certain hierarchy. The older model _Laurasia_-class frigates were considered to be the bottom of the space force pecking order, so to speak. What should've been next in line for a Captain of one of those ships was a transfer to a _Nazca_-class destroyer. From there one could eventually expect an official promotion to Commander and with due time perhaps be given one of the new _Hel_-class cruisers and a task force to lead. After that the next rung in the ladder would be the lofty rank of Field Marshal and a posting to one of the few remaining _Orizaba_-class carrier/dreadnoughts, a base command in the Exclusion Grid or the Homeland, or that coveted perch on the new super carrier _Gondwana_. A Commander or a senior Captain of a _Nazca_-class destroyer should've been given command of the fleet's newest battleship. Even Talia's status as a veteran of the last war should not have exempted her from that process, informal though it may be. For her to jump from command of the _Natta _right to the bridge of the _Minerva _was not conventional.

Her service had earned her commendation and praise, but in Talia's eyes that was not enough to leapfrog her to the command of the _Minerva_. By this point in her career she should've been either a Captain on a _Nazca_-class destroyer or a Commander on one of those ships leading a squadron. She had a suspicion she knew how she had landed this posting, and it made her rather uncomfortable.

_Gilbert_, she thought, _this was your doing, wasn't it?_

Her past with the current PLANT Supreme Council Chairman was a closely guarded secret. It wasn't that she was embarrassed about it, but she knew that if it got out it would cause others to look at her differently. There would be the inevitable rumors of favoritism, and if nothing else she wanted her comrades to believe that she had earned this command on her own merits… even if _she_ didn't truly believe that.

"Arthur!" she called out to her Executive Officer, "I need a status report! Where are we at with the ship checks?"

Dressed in the black and purple uniform common to the second-in-command officers of ZAFT warships, Arthur Trine turned towards his Captain. Her deputy Captain was twenty-six years old, with brown eyes and hair that was dyed a light grey, a rather odd choice given his youth. While he was a competent administrator the fact remained that he was untested in battle, and though he had performed well in simulator exercises Talia knew that there was no substitute for field experience.

"We're at a little over 80% right now, ma'am," he replied.

Talia's eyes narrowed. "80%? The launching ceremony is in five hours, and we're loading those three new models in two. We need to pick up the pace!"

"I understand, Captain," said Arthur, "but we also have to check over the Impulse. It's by far the most complex unit we have on this ship. There are also many new crew members still coming aboard the ship and are still undergoing orientation and familiarizing themselves with their duties."

"And do you think an enemy would care about things like that if we were at war?" she said, "We have to make our deadline, Arthur!"

Her XO nodded. "Yes, ma'am!"

"What's her deal?" she heard Meyrin mutter from her station, "The war's over."

At sixteen years of age the girl was the youngest member of the _Minerva_'s bridge crew. She was a kind but shy girl. Wearing a green uniform and matching cap, she had her long red hair held up in twin pigtails, and while her indigo eyes were the same as her older sister Lunamaria they did lack the pilot's fiery energy and confidence, instead being full of insecurity and caution. Meyrin had a difficult task for one so young; she supervised the ship's mobile suits and communications. The young lady was gifted in multi-tasking with tactical coordination and hacking systems. Meyrin had been trained to delegate information between the bridge and the mobile suit pilots, along with handling the complex launch procedures of the combat units.

Talia decided to let the girl's utterance slide. There were more important things to worry about at the moment. Besides, most of the time Meyrin was a very respectful young woman, so for her to mutter like that on the bridge was actually an indication of the stress she was under, and Talia did not want to add to it unnecessarily.

Meyrin was also as untested as Arthur, which gave Talia cause for concern. In fact, Talia was actually the only veteran officer assigned to the _Minerva_, which did not make sense to her. As the newest ship in the fleet the vessel should've had more experienced crew members assigned to her, and yet aside from her the ship's entire crew was green. Talia had no idea what the top brass were thinking by putting such a crew on the _Minerva_, and she could only hope that the simulations they had undergone so far would along with their prior training would be enough to get them through today's exercises.

"Where's the pilot of the Impulse?" asked Talia, "We need him in order to complete the checks on that unit!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Meyrin replied, "I'll find him!"

Talia sighed.

_Damn it, Shinn. You'd better not be late._

….

"Chairman Durandal," said Cagalli, "Why are you showing us all of this?"

The head of the PLANTs, along with a few of his staffers and bodyguards, was taking her and Athrun on a tour of one of Armory One's mobile suit assembly and maintenance facilities. Currently they were walking between two rows of several large hangars, and while Cagalli had been impressed by their contents it had done little to ease her concerns.

"I have no desire to hide anything from you," Durandal replied, "As I told you earlier, Lady Cagalli, I believe that full disclosure on my part will aid our dialogue considerably."

Cagalli nodded. "I appreciate that, Chairman. However, this tour of yours has only served to bring up one of my main worries about your program. I've repeatedly requested that you stop using information and personnel that were once part of Morgenroete for military purposes. I may be a member of the Orb political elite, but I've spent a significant amount of time working with Morgenroete, and I've already recognized several of its former employees among those working on this colony."

Durandal sighed. "I understand, Lady Cagalli. However, these are refugees from Orb who did not feel safe in your country after the Alliance invasion and the attack on Elysium. When they arrived here we wished to give them meaningful employment, a place where they could put their talents to good use and provided for themselves and their families. Can you really blame them for taking advantage of their abilities to make new lives for themselves here?"

Cagalli shook her head. "No, but I also know that their talents can be put to other uses besides the manufacture of weapons. I realize that this does not constitute a direct transfer of technology or aid and does not violate the terms of the treaty, but the fact remains that these are former Orb citizens now working in a ZAFT armaments program. What if the weapons that they're helping to create are used against their former country?"

Durandal smiled. "I have a hard time imagining that, Lady Cagalli. After all, our respective nations have been on excellent terms since the end of the war. I know you enjoyed a strong working relationship with Provisional Chairwoman Canaver, and in the time since I've taken the executive office I've never had a serious quarrel with your administration. Also, if you're worried that these former Orb citizens may hold ill will for you or their former country, I can assure you that is not the case. I believe you've already seen evidence of that during the tour."

Cagalli couldn't argue with that. Inside the facilities Durandal had shown them so far she'd been given a warm greeting, with many of the former Orb citizens calling out to her. They'd seemed happy to see her, and while it was always possible that those greetings had been merely staged by Durandal their feelings had appeared to be genuine.

_Maybe they are happy here and don't hold any hard feelings towards Orb or myself_, she thought, _Do I really have the right to protest after the failures of our government to properly protect people like them in the last war? After Elysium…_

She shuddered as she recalled the slaughter of the refugees during the Alliance's attack on that colony. Were it not for the efforts of her friends she knew things could've been much worse, but they'd still been bad enough as it was.

"Cagalli," said Athrun, grabbing her hand, "Are you okay?"

She nodded and forced a smile for him. "I'm fine, Alex."

It still felt weird using his cover name. How was a girl supposed to call her boyfriend a name that was not his own? She wondered if some of the others that were currently in hiding in Orb had managed to handle that bit of their new lives.

She turned back to the Chairman as the paused in front of an open entrance to one of the hangars. "Putting aside the matter of former Morgenroete employees, there's another issue that needs to be addressed."

"And what is that, Lady Cagalli?" asked Durandal.

Cagalli gestured towards the hangar and the machines that she could see inside it. "How about all of these mobile suits, Chairman? You're building a large number of units here, and you're about to launch a new battleship! I'm well aware that the vessel and these machines are within the boundaries of the treaty, but it's not the risk of treaty violation that concerns me. Chairman, don't you think that a development like this will only increase instability and intensify the arms race?"

Durandal shook his head. "No, I believe a show of strength like this can be used to deter further aggressive actions. Currently, the Earth Alliance…"

He was cut off by a blast coming from one of the hangars.

….

Leaping from their hiding spot behind several large crates, Stella, Sting, and Auel drew their weapons and rushed into the hangar. The decoy bomb had worked like a charm, drawing a large number of the security forces towards the hangar the diversionary blast had taken place in and making it much easier for the three Extended Humans to go after their real objectives.

_Sneaking in here and planting that bomb was easy_, she thought, _These guys really are sloppy!_

A submachine gun in her right hand and a knife in her left, Stella wasted no time in finding targets. Auel had drawn two submachine guns and had a gleeful look in his eyes, while Sting had also drawn two such weapons. The three of them opened fire in unison, gunning down anyone unfortunate enough to be in their way.

Her eyes narrowed as she played her part in the slaughter of the few remaining guards and the mobile suit technicians, Stella quickly found the mobile suit that she was supposed to hijack. Plugging a guard between the eyes and slashing the neck of a mechanic, she rushed towards the machine. The smell of freshly spilled blood filled the hangar as Sting and Auel likewise butchered their way towards the mobile suits they had been sent to steal. Gunfire and screams echoed in the air as the three of them put the hapless ZAFT personnel to death, the few pathetic attempts to counterattack posing no meaningful threat to the augmented and heavily trained trio. They moved swiftly, with speed and precision that even a Coordinator would be hard pressed to match.

The three mobile suits that they were going to steal were dull grey machines, though that was only because they hadn't been powered up yet. Once they were up and running that would change; the Phase Shift Armor would take care of that.

Shooting a mechanic in the chest before stabbing another one through the heart, Stella leaped up on top of her machine and slipped neatly into the open cockpit. Closing the hatch, she immediately began the power-up sequence. The cockpit displays came to life, and on the monitor in front of her the name of her machine flashed across the screen; ZGMF-X88S Gaia. From the outside, if anyone were still alive in the hangar apart from the three Extended Humans they would've seen the dull gray frame become a primarily black-armored machine as the Phase Shift Armor powered up, along with purple, red, and yellow trim.

Developed as part of ZAFT's Second Stage Series, the Gaia was classified as a prototype transformable assault ground mobile suit. As the typing suggested, the unit was not just limited to its mobile suit form; it could shift into an alternate combat mode, in this case a wolf-like surface attack unit similar to the older TMF/A-802 BuCUE most famously used by the Desert Tiger's legendary North Africa Corps in the last war. In combat the Gaia was primarily oriented towards close-range battle, although the unit did have some ranged weaponry for distance engagement.

In mobile suit form the Gaia's primary weapons were MA-M941 Vajra Beam Sabers and an MA-BAR71XE High-Energy Beam Rifle. Mounted on the head was a pair of MMI-GAU25A 20mm CIWS, used primarily for shooting down missiles or small aircraft, although they could also be deployed for suppressing fire against infantry and light ground vehicles. Two MA-81R Beam Assault Cannons were mounted in the backpack, giving the unit additional firepower for long range combat. Mounted on the left arm was a MMI-RS1 Mobile Shield.

In mobile armor form the Gaia's weaponry underwent a considerable shift. Mounted alongside the head specifically for use in the MA form were four MMI-GAU1717 12.5mm CIWS for shooting down missiles and suppressive fire. The pair of backpack-mounted Beam Assault Cannons was also usable in MA form, while the High-Energy Beam Rifle would be mounted on its right shoulder. For close-quarters-combat the wings would fold out and two MR-Q17X Griffon 2 Beam Blades would activate, and when the MA got into a good run they would be lethal weapons. Meanwhile, the shield would shift to the unit's abdominal region to protect the pilot from attacks from below.

As she stood her new mobile suit up Stella could see Auel and Sting's machines also rising. Auel had grabbed a blue mobile suit called the ZGMF-X31S Abyss, a prototype transformable assault amphibious mobile suit. It was meant to serve as primarily a long-range support unit with aquatic capabilities in both mobile suit and mobile armor form. The unit was quite large, and it was framed by two heavy shoulder-binders that served as both weapons mounts and protective shields.

In mobile suit form the unit's most powerful long-range weapon was its chest-mounted MGX-2235 Callidus Multi-phase Beam Cannon. Inside the two large shoulder-mounted binders were sets of MA-X223E 3-barrel Beam Cannons, one set in each binder. They were effective in engaging multiple targets but, like the Callidus, they could only be used in mobile suit form. Mounted at the lower end of the shoulder-binders was a pair of shell-firing M68 Dual Cannons. Four MMI-TT101 Mk9 High-speed Guided Torpedoes were set up on the binders and could be used in both mobile suit and mobile armor form. On the backpack was a M107 Balaena Kai Dual Beam Cannon, a more energy-efficient version of the ZGMF-X10A Freedom's M100 Balaena Plasma Beam Cannons. In mobile suit mode the weapon could be used to engage enemies after flipping upwards or all the way forward. Two MMI-GAU25A 20mm CIWS were mounted on the chest, while a smaller MMI-GAU1717 12.5mm CIWS was mounted below the mobile suit's forehead camera. Its sole melee weapon was a unique MX-RQB516 Beam Lance.

In mobile armor mode the shoulder-binders closed, preventing several of the machine's weapons from being used but producing a streamlined form that reduced water resistance, making for a high-speed aquatic machine. The MA form could also be used in space combat. In this configuration the primary weapons were the torpedoes, the shell-cannons, and the Balaena Kai cannons. It was the most formidable amphibious weapon in ZAFT's arsenal and would be a devastating loss for the Coordinators.

The final stolen mobile suit, now piloted by Sting, was the ZGMF-X24S Chaos. It was classified as a prototype transformable assault space mobile suit, capable of high-speed combat in both outer space and in the atmosphere. The unit bore a color scheme of different greens along with some orange trim, and Stella thought that it was a good match for Sting.

Without a doubt the most unique feature of the Chaos were the two EQFU-5X Mobile Weapon Pods mounted on the back of the mobile suit, one on each side. The pods could be detached from the Chaos and operated wirelessly to attack enemies from multiple directions to overwhelm them. While the wireless feature made them similar in nature to the DRAGOON remote gun-pods found on units from the last war like the Judgment and the Providence, the size of the Chaos' mobile weapon pods and their shape was more reminiscent of the gunbarrel pods found on the old Earth Alliance Moebius Zero mobile armor. The operating system of the weapons pods was greatly simplified than the similar systems employed in the last war, although a pilot still needed considerable spatial awareness to wield them with maximum effectiveness. Each pod was armed with a MA-81R Beam Assault Cannon and twelve AGM141 Firefly guided missiles. Boosters were mounted on the back of the pods, and when they were not detached they served to increase the already considerable mobility of the Chaos.

In addition to the Mobile Weapon Pods the Chaos had a number of other weapons it could use in its mobile suit configuration. For close-quarters-combat it had a pair of MA-M941 Vajra Beam Sabers just like the Gaia. It carried a MA-BAR721 High-energy Beam rifle. Four MMI-GAU1717 12.5mm CIWS were mounted on the head for missile interception and suppressive fire. Two larger MMI-GAU25A 20mm CIWS were mounted in its chest for the same purpose. On the left arm was a MMI-RG30 Cruising Mobile Shield, and mounted within the shield were two MMI-GAU2 Picus 76mm machine guns.

In its MA configuration the Chaos looked much like a bird of prey. The mobile suit's backpack folded over its head, and in it was mounted the unit's most powerful weapon, an MGX-2235B Callidus Kai Multi-phase Beam Cannon. The beam rifle and Mobile Weapons Pods could still be used in MA form, and for close-combat in this configuration the Chaos wielded two MA-XM434 Beam Claws, one mounted on each leg.

Although all three mobile suits were unique, they did employ some uniform features. They were all equipped with Deuterion Beam Energy Transfer Systems, allowing their batteries to be remotely recharged mid-battle by the battleship _Minerva_, although since the Earth Alliance warships lacked this capability that meant that the system would not see use with the mobile suits' new owners. Their Phase Shift Armor was an improved design called Variable Phase Shift Armor, which was more energy efficient and could be set at different levels to fit specific situations and maximize its utility. The operating system was state of the art, and was advanced to such a degree that it could even be employed by Naturals, which would've made it easier for Coordinators to use and was a great benefit to the Extended Humans who had hijacked them.

Sting's face appeared on the monitor as Stella checked out her machine. "Auel, Stella. Status report."

"I'm good here," she replied.

"All set," said Auel, "Let's trash this place!"

"Destroy the hangars first," Sting ordered, "That'll limit the amount of mobile suits that can come after us!"

"Got it!" said Stella.

"Time to blow it all to hell!" cackled Auel.

"Okay," said Sting, "move out!"

….

Looking around frantically for the source of the threat, Athrun and the others braced themselves as a hangar not too far away was blown apart. Keeping himself between Cagalli and the destruction, his eyes widened as he saw three of ZAFT's prototype mobile suits rise from the wreckage.

"Those are new models!" he cried.

"It's a hijacking!" yelled Cagalli, "Just like Heliopolis!"

Athrun certainly wouldn't deny the similarities; he'd been part of the Heliopolis raid in the last war, after all. However, that didn't matter right now. His objective was to keep Cagalli safe, and being on foot with renegade mobile suits rampaging about made his task extremely difficult.

He saw Durandal turn to one of his aides. "Evans, take Lady Cagalli and her bodyguard to the closest shelter! The rest of you will escort me to the _Minerva_!"

Athrun saw a blond man in a green uniform salute the Chairman before turning to him and Cagalli. "Follow me! We must hurry!"

Athrun nodded and grabbed Cagalli's hand. "Let's go!"

As the two groups split up Athrun got a close-up view of the power of the three ZAFT prototypes. They were blowing apart every building and vehicle in their path, and since the attack was coming from inside the facility the security forces were caught completely by surprise. The Chaos had taken to the sky and transformed into its mobile armor form. Like an emerald hawk from hell it made strafing runs on the facility, blowing apart structures with its beam rifle, energy cannon, and particle beam fire from its weapons pods. Meanwhile, the Gaia had also transformed into its wolf-like mobile armor form and was running amok, its two large beam blades ripping through buildings while its energy cannons and rifle blasted more to shreds. Its four CIWS peppered the ground, shredding light vehicles and turning the poor souls unfortunate enough to be in their line of fire into bloody chunks on the pavement. The Abyss had stayed in its mobile suit form and was bombarding the facility with every gun it could bring to bear. Smoke rose from scores of fires, the screams of the wounded and dying rang out amid the constant string of explosions, and impact craters and debris were scattered everywhere.

The base was rapidly becoming a picture of hell.

Various mobile suits were beginning to emerge from the few intact hangars and from beneath piles of debris. It was a mix of older models, including GINNs and GuAIZ Rs. The latter was an upgraded form of the GuAIZ mobile suit introduced in the last war as a replacement for the venerable GINN. It had a simpler design to make mass production easier, replacing the extensional arrestors with railguns and removing one of the two beam claws from the Composite Shield, while some of the backpack thrusters had been removed to make the units easier to pilot. The mobile suit retained the beam rifle and the head-mounted CIWS. It was a solid machine, certainly more powerful than the combat GINNs or the garish ceremonial units scattered around the facility, but it was outmatched against the hijacked prototypes and they were still attempting to recover from a deadly surprise attack.

As he, Cagalli, and Evans ran Athrun watched as the ZAFT pilots tried to organize a counterattack. Their responses were sloppy and panicked though, betraying the inexperience of the soldiers assigned to Armory One. Scattered and disorganized, they were easy prey for the three attackers.

A GINN was ripped in half by one of the Gaia's beam blades as it fired its machine gun at the stolen prototype. A GuAIZ R was blown to bits by strafing fire from the Chaos. Two more GuAIZ Rs were destroyed by a rain of emerald beams from the Abyss. Another GINN was blasted by the Gaia's beam cannons. All around Athrun and Cagalli the ZAFT forces were falling to their foes.

_If only I could get into a machine_, he thought as they ran, _If only I could fight!_

The three hijackers were clearly skilled, but even from his vantage point Athrun could see that they were far from perfect. They were very aggressive and fast, but they weren't coordinating their attacks; they were more or less rampaging at will. A cooler-headed pilot could, with skill and calculation, potentially turn the tide against them, but Athrun was not seeing any evidence of that in ZAFT's response so far.

"Quickly!" shouted Evans from up ahead, "The shelter's this way!"

Athrun was about to respond when a nearby building exploded, throwing him and Cagalli off their feet and consuming Evans. Athrun had landed on top of Cagalli and did what he could to shield her from debris.

"Cagalli!" he yelled, "Are you okay?"

Raising her head, he was relieved when he saw her blink and nod. "I think so… oh no!"

Following Cagalli's gaze, Athrun grimaced as he saw the charred and blackened remains of Evans. The two of them had become more than accustomed to death in the last war, but it had been quite some time since they had seen it up close like this.

_This trip's gone completely to hell_, he thought, _No matter what happens I have to get Cagalli out of here!_

"Can you move?" he asked as he helped her to her feet.

"I think so," she said, her voice shaky, "Athrun… what do we do? Where are we supposed to go? We have to help them!"

"I know," Athrun replied, "but…"

His voice trailed off as his eyes found a green mobile suit lying face-up on the ground nearby. It was partially covered by debris, but it looked to be intact and the cockpit hatch was clearly exposed.

"Come with me," he said, his eyes narrowing in focus and resolve, "I've got an idea."

….

"Core Splendor," said Meyrin from the screen in his cockpit, "move to the catapult!"

Clad in his crimson flight suit, Shinn steadied himself as he moved his machine forward. A small white and blue fighter craft, the YFX-M56 Core Splendor actually doubled as the cockpit section of the advanced prototype mobile suit ZGMF-X56S Impulse. It was designed to launch from its own dedicated hangar aboard the _Minerva _and then link up with the Chest and Leg Flyer to form the complete mobile suit. From there the Impulse could link up with one of three specialized Silhouette packs and engage the enemy. The Core Splendor itself could be used for reconnaissance and harassment, but it was only lightly armed with two MMI-GAU19 20mm machine guns and two QF908 missile launchers equipped with AGM33 Ladybird missiles. When the Core Splendor linked up with the Chest and Leg Flyers the missile launchers detached and used built-in micro-thrusters to return to the battleship.

"Core Splendor," said Meyrin, "We're showing you in launch position. Course is clear and you are green for launch! Good luck!"

Shinn saw Arthur appear on the screen. "Remember, Shinn, this is _not _a drill! Your orders are to distract the enemy and then link up with the Flyers and a Sword pack and take them out! Lunamaria and Rey will be launching to support you directly, while Malik and Burt will follow them and act to contain the enemy and keep them focused on you!"

"Got it!" Shinn replied, "Launching now!"

He was thrown back in his seat as the fighter shot out of the hangar like a bat out of hell. Shinn had done training launches before, but since now he was flying into actual combat this one had a distinctly different feel to it.

Checking his sensors as he gained altitude, his eyes narrowed as he saw the three rampaging prototypes and the inferno that was consuming the facility.

"You bastards!" he growled, "I'm going to make you pay for what you did here!"

….

Like most post-treaty mobile suits, the ZGMF-1000 ZAKU (ZAFT Armed Keeper of Unity) Warrior was designed under the basic principle of doing more with less. In essence it was a potent upgrade of the venerable GINN with a variety of new features. The standard color scheme for the unit was green, like that of the mobile suit Athrun and Cagalli had just now commandeered, with a single red sensor eye in its head. It had a wicked spike coming out of its right shoulder, while mounted on the left was a shield with a trio of spikes on the upper section. Its base armament was respectable, composed of an MMI-M633 beam assault rifle that had its own clip for power rather than siphoning energy from the unit's batteries, four large grenades of varying types attached to the skirt, and a MA-M8 Beam Tomahawk stored in the shield. Also attached to the shield were two replacement energy clips for the assault rifle. Curiously the ZAKU, like the GINN before it, lacked the CIWS common to most mobile suits of the Cosmic Era. The unit had respectable mobility in space and in the lighter gravity of a colony or the Moon, although it lacked full-flight capabilities in Earth's atmosphere. Its true strength came from its ability to mount a variety of augmentation packs called Wizard packs, which provided it with new weapons and enhanced capabilities. Unfortunately for Athrun and Cagalli, the unit they were in now was just the base mobile suit, and they would have to make do with that.

It may not have been the Justice he'd flown in the last war, or even the Aegis, but Athrun would definitely take the ZAKU in a pinch. The cockpit was cramped as he took the pilot's chair and Cagalli crammed herself in on his right; like most mobile suits it had not been meant for two people. At the back of his mind Athrun mused that he now had a greater appreciation for what Heero'd had to endure during the raid on Aprilius One in the last war, and that had been with _two _passengers.

"Are you ready?" he asked as he powered up the mobile suit.

Cagalli nodded and gave him a clearly forced smile. "Yeah. I'll try not to get in your way."

Athrun smiled in return. "In that case, hold on tight!"

Pushing the ZAKU up, debris sliding from it as it got to its feet, Athrun scanned the area around him. Equipping the beam rifle in his right hand and the beam tomahawk in his left, Athrun immediately found the Gaia, back in its mobile suit form, to be the closest enemy to him. It had just stabbed a GINN through the cockpit with its beam saber and was only now noticing him.

"You're mine!" growled Athrun as he charged forward.

Leading with his shield, Athrun plowed into the Gaia with a hard tackle. The blow knocked the stolen machine off balance, but Athrun's eyes widened in horror as it also threw Cagalli forward and she smacked her head against the arm of his chair.

"Cagalli!" he cried.

The young woman groaned, and Athrun saw a trickle of blood running from a cut on her forehead. She was losing consciousness quickly, and Athrun mentally berated himself for not being more careful with his attack.

_Damn it_, he silently fumed, _If I keep this up I could get her killed! Focus, Athrun! Hold out until help arrives and then get Cagalli to safety!_

His panic had distracted him from his foe, and as he checked his monitor again he saw that the Gaia had regained its footing. The mobile suit was clearly preparing to charge, and as Athrun raised his beam tomahawk in response he knew he had to be very careful about how he handled the fight going forward.

However, before either mobile suit could act a rain of bullets came down from above, pinging off the Gaia's shield and Phase Shift Armor. Athrun saw his foe leap backwards as additional bullets dug into the pavement, and then it opened up with its CIWS to intercept a flurry of small missiles that had been launched at it.

Looking up, the former ZAFT ace saw a small white and blue fighter craft pull out of a strafing run. He had no idea what a machine like that was doing here, flying for a military that predominantly used mobile suits, but he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Raising the ZAKU's beam rifle, Athrun squeezed off a few shots at the Gaia, forcing it to pull back a bit.

Additional contacts appeared on his sensors. There were three of them and they were rapidly approaching the fighter craft. Looking up, Athrun was about to contact the pilot when he realized that there was something off about the contacts approaching the aircraft. They didn't appear to be mobile suits… or at least, not complete ones.

_Are those modules?_, he thought incredulously, _Don't tell me it's going to…_

Indeed it was. Athrun's eyes widened in amazement as the two small missile launchers detached from the fighter and flew off to parts unknown before the craft itself began to shift and change. A section clearly identified as mobile suit legs linked up first with the bottom of the craft, followed by a chest and head section at the top. A third flyer with two large prongs sticking out of it attached itself to the back, and Athrun quickly realized that they were actually anti-ship swords like what had been used on the old Sword-Strike.

"It's another new model…" he said softly.

Coming down fast, the ZAFT mobile suit slammed feet first into the pavement. As it stood up Athrun could see the machine in its full glory. Boasting a red and white color scheme, it had taken the two anti-ship swords and combined them at the hilt to form a double-bladed weapon with the energy blades on alternating sides of the central metal spars. Mounted on each shoulder were what Athrun recognized to be beam boomerangs, while two anti-armor knives were stored at the hips and two CIWS were mounted on the chest. He also saw a beam rifle, though it was currently stored on the lower back of the mobile suit. A shield was mounted on the unit's left arm.

A young male voice came over the radio on an open channel, and Athrun realized that it was the new mobile suit's pilot.

"Are you guys trying to start another war?"

….

"I'll stop you here!" Shinn shouted as he brandished his combined swords.

Now that the Impulse was completely in its Sword configuration he wasted no time in attacking the enemy. He leapt forward at the Gaia, making a broad swing with his double-bladed anti-ship sword in an attempt to slice the black machine in half. Unfortunately for him his enemy was too quick and managed to pull back and avoid the strike. Shinn didn't let that stop his attack; he grabbed one of his beam boomerangs and let fly.

The Gaia managed to bring up its beam saber and deflect the projectile. As it returned to the Impulse Shinn was about to follow up but he was forced to pull back as fire from the sky rained down around him. With a snarl he looked up and saw the Abyss and Chaos, both in their mobile suit forms and coming right at him.

He leapt to the right to avoid fire from the two machines. To his left he saw the Gaia moving towards him, but it was cut off by emerald beam fire. Shinn saw a green ZAKU had its rifle trained on the black mobile suit, and while its shots had not damaged the Gaia it had distracted it.

"This is Shinn Asuka. Who are you?" he asked, "Answer me!"

"My name's Alex," a male voice replied, "but that doesn't matter right now. Watch out to your right!"

Startled, Shinn saw that the Abyss had gotten on the ground to his right and was charging at him, its beam lance ignited. Bringing his sword up Shinn managed to deflect the attack, but scarcely had he warded off that strike when he was forced to pull back due to fire from the Chaos.

"Damn it!" he growled, "There's too many of them!"

Suddenly Lunamaria appeared on the screen. "Shinn, hang on! We're almost there!"

Shinn smiled as he dodged particle beams from the Chaos and Abyss. "About time! Hurry up!"

Checking his sensors, he saw on one of his monitors four ZAFT mobile suits coming his way. One was a red ZAKU with no Wizard pack; that would be Lunamaria's machine. The second was a white ZGMF-1001 ZAKU Phantom, a limited production, improved version of the ZAKU that was currently only used by elite pilots and commanders. It had two shields unlike the single one on the regular ZAKU, giving it twice as many clips for the beam rifle and a spare beam tomahawk. Apart from that it was distinguished by a unique horn on its head that housed special advanced sensors. This unit was equipped with a Blaze Wizard pack, which consisted of two missile launchers mounted on the back of the machine with multiple AGM138 Firebee missiles, along with improved thrusters for increased mobility. The unique paintjob gave it away as Rey Za Burrel's mobile suit. Bringing up the rear were Malik Yardbirds and Burt Heim in their ZGMF-601R GuAIZ Rs.

"All right!" he said, "Let's take back our machines!"

….

"Damn it!" hissed Auel, "There's more of them!"

"I can see that," said Sting as he checked his sensors, "and these two that we're fighting here don't exactly suck either."

"What do we do?" asked Stella.

Sting's eyes narrowed as he dodged beam fire from the green ZAKU on the ground. He returned fire with his beam rifle and the guns in the pods, but his foe was able to keep its shield up and block the fire it couldn't dodge. Meanwhile the red and white machine was successfully holding off Auel and Stella, and when those other four mobile suits joined the fray things would get even more complicated.

As much as Sting hated to cut their fun short, he knew that they had to retreat. Their primary objective had been to steal the three mobile suits; wrecking facilities inside Armory One was a secondary goal. Colonel Nazara would doubtlessly see both goals as having been accomplished by this point, so it was time to pull out.

"Auel, you and I will stall them," he said, "Stella, go open up our escape hatch!"

"But I…" she began to protest as she crossed blades with the red and white machine.

"Just go!" Sting ordered, "The Colonel's probably on his way by now, remember? We can't be late!"

The mention of the Colonel was enough to stiffen her resolve. "Right. Breaking off. Cover me!"

As the Gaia pulled back the double-sword machine moved to pursue. Sting didn't let it. Opening up with his rifle and beam cannons, he forced the red and white mobile suit to go evasive and bought Stella time to get airborne.

_Hurry up, Stella_, he thought as he set himself up to engage the green ZAKU and the red and white machine while Auel trained his artillery on the four incoming mobile suits, _We need to get out of here!_

….

From his perch on the _Girty Lue_'s bridge Colonel Nazara chuckled as he watched the cruiser _Vidar _turn towards Armory One, its mobile suits quickly deploying and rushing towards the colony. His three Extended had clearly stirred up a ruckus inside the colony, which meant that it was time for the rest of his force to enter the field… and with the _Vidar_'s rear now fully exposed she made for such a lovely target.

"I think it's time we made our debut, Captain," he said, "You know what to do."

Captain Ian Lee nodded and turned to his crew. "All hands, battle stations! Deactivate the Mirage Colloid! Aim Gottfrieds at that cruiser's engines and fire at will! Launch all mobile suits! Comm, signal Force Alpha and order them to advance on the colony!"

Nazara smirked at that last order. The _Girty Lue _was not the only Phantom Pain warship involved in today's operation. Force Alpha was a task force that had concealed itself in the L4 debris field roughly two weeks ago, laying patiently in wait for the order that Captain Lee had just given. Like the _Girty Lue _and all other Phantom Pain units they lacked the signature markings and IFF beacons of standard Earth Alliance forces in order to preserve deniability, however tenuous it might be. The ships of Force Alpha lacked Mirage Colloid systems, which was why it had been so important for them to quietly slip into the L4 debris field to conceal themselves during the waiting period.

Nazara rose from his seat and turned to the Captain. "I'm going to deploy as well. I'll need to buy some time for Sting and the others to withdraw. Captain, command of this force is yours."

The Captain nodded. "Understood, Colonel. Good hunting."

Nazara smiled. "Oh, I'm sure it will be."

….

Already strapped into the cockpit of his mobile suit, Sam grinned as his machine was fitted to the catapult. He'd spent enough time cooped up on the _Girty Lue_; now it was time to earn his paycheck.

His mobile suit was a custom machine constructed by Desperado Enforcement with covert assistance from the Atlantic Federation. Called the GAT-X192 Ronin, it was a mobile suit specifically designed for close combat. The unit's frame was based on the old Strike like so many other Earth Alliance mobile suits, and it even shared the same Igelstellung 75mm CIWS. Apart from that the only weapon the mobile suit had was a custom-built beam katana. It worked on the same basic principle as the anti-ship sword used by the Sword Strike, but the metal part was curved and actually kept in a sheath at the mobile suit's waist. The mobile suit had greatly improved batteries, Phase Shift Armor, and an Aile pack stripped of the usual weapons but with enhanced thrusters for significantly increased mobility. There was no shield; it was a machine that was build solely to attack at close-range. The pattern of the Phase Shift Armor was mostly black with red trim, while on the cockpit there was a red skull set in a diamond; the Desperado logo.

The voice of the flight controller came over the radio as the forward hatch opened up. "Ronin, you are clear for launch."

Sam chuckled. "About damn time. Minuano, launching!"

The Ronin shot out of the _Girty Lue _and right into a rapidly unfolding battle. Heavy beam fire from the battleship's Gottfrieds had hammered the engines of the _Vidar_, and the cruiser was already dead in space. Of course, that wasn't good enough, and another salvo of emerald death punched through the cruiser's bridge and reactor, turning it into a fireball.

Sam was worried that there wouldn't be anything left for him, but then he saw contacts on his sensors and smiled. The cruiser had apparently launched her seven mobile suits upon learning that Armory One was under attack, and the _Girty Lue _had blasted her just after the launching had been completed. All seven machines were turning around and coming back to avenge their fallen mothership.

_One recon GINN and six ZAKUs_, he mused, _I suppose that's not too bad for a warm-up…_

The recon GINN only had the sniper rifle that such models were equipped with in the last war and wouldn't be a real threat. As for the six green ZAKUs, Sam's eyes narrowed as he saw that they were all equipped with various Wizard packs. Three had Blaze packs, two had Slash packs, and one had a Gunner pack.

The Slash pack was a Wizard pack designed primarily for close combat. It gave a ZAKU or ZAKU Phantom an MA-MR Falx G7 beam axe, a pole-arm with two large metal blades at one end, one large than the other. Both blades were lined with beam emitters, while at the other end of the weapon was a small fold-out metal blade that could be used for surprise attacks or if the main blades were damaged. The pack also included a pair of MMI-M826 Hydra Gatling Beam Cannons that gave the ZAKU some midrange firepower.

Meanwhile, the Gunner pack was focused on the other end of the spectrum, providing a ZAKU with long-range hitting power. The pack's contribution was the heavy M1500 Orthros high-energy long range beam cannon. It was an exceptionally powerful weapon, well suited to either anti-ship or anti-fortification bombardment. However, it had a slow rate of fire and considerable recoil. Due to the gun's high-energy requirements the Gunner pack also came with a separate battery specifically devoted to the M1500 Orthros.

_They've got a good spread_, he thought with a chuckle, _Let's see what they can do with it!_

Sam poured on the thrusters, eager to engage the enemy before the other Phantom Pain mobile suits could get in the way. The four Dagger Ls of the _Girty Lue _had already launched, but there speed was no match for that of the Ronin. Two of the black mobile suits were equipped with the new Doppelhorn Striker pack, which basically added two shoulder-mounted recoilless cannons capable of inflicting severe damage to warships and utterly obliterating mobile suits. The other two had no augmentation packs and were armed with the standard beam sabers, beam carbines, CIWS, and shields. He didn't see Colonel Nazara's mobile suit yet, but he was sure that the Nosferatu would deploy soon enough.

Approaching the enemy, Sam drew his katana and ignited the violet blade than ran along its edge. "Let's dance!"

He was met with a rain of fire as the Blaze ZAKUs opened up with their beam rifles and missiles, the Slash ZAKUs with their beam gatlings, the Gunner with the Orthros, and the recon GINN with its sniper rifle. Sam was not deterred by the bombardment and raced through it at lightning speed, the nimble Ronin weaving through the fire. Phase Shift Armor was no defense against energy weapons, which meant that a single hit from a particle beam could be the end of him, but to Sam that simply added to the thrill. With no shield to block incoming fire and no meaningful way to respond at long-range everything came down to his ability to close the distance and strike back, and that was something Jetstream Sam excelled at.

Seeing that he would make it through their barrage the two Slash ZAKUs moved to the front of the formation, their beam axes blazing and ready to cut him down. Sam never gave them the chance to use them. Bringing his sword down in a quick vertical strike, he split the lead unit down the middle before whirling on the other one. Making a horizontal slash he cut the second Slash ZAKU in half at the waist.

While he had contended with the close-range units the rest of the ZAFT mobile suits had attempted to surround them. Sam made a beeline for one of the Blaze ZAKUs, using his CIWS to shoot down a few missiles before thrusting the katana right through his enemy's cockpit. He didn't stop their; pulling his blade out as fast as he could, he rushed the Gunner ZAKU, the brilliant stream of crimson fire from its Orthros cannon sailing past him through the void as he got into sword range and cut it down.

_Four down_, he thought with a grin, _and three to go!_

Rushing the other two Blaze ZAKUs, he lashed out again with his blade. He was impressed as this time his target managed to bring its beam tomahawk up to block the blow, but he quickly adjusted and made a second strike that destroyed the machine. Diving to avoid fire from the other Blaze ZAKU, Sam rushed the recon GINN and stabbed it through the cockpit. As he was about to turn on the final Blaze ZAKU he saw it get torn apart by shells from one of the Doppelhorn Dagger Ls.

He smirked and threw a mock salute at the Phantom Pain unit that had fired the shot. "Not bad. I thought for sure I'd get all of them before they crashed the party. I might've been a little sloppy."

Glancing back at the _Girty Lue_, he saw a familiar violet mobile suit launch from the battleship.

_Took your sweet time, Colonel_, he thought.

Colonel Nazara's mobile suit was called the GAT-X666 Nosferatu. It was larger than the other machines that were with Phantom Pain's force here today, and for a very good reason; the mobile suit was nuclear powered. It was another clear violation of the Treaty of Junius Seven, but Sam knew that Nazara and his superiors didn't really care about that. The nuclear reactor and N-Jammer Canceller meant that Nazara could keep his Phase Shift Armor running as long as he wanted, along with the rest of his machine; the only limitation on it now was the pilot himself.

Its armaments were quite impressive. In its right hand was a violet beam saber while in the left was an M9509N beam rifle. Mounted on the left arm was also a shield for blocking beam attacks. At the waist was mounted a pair of MAU-M3 linear guns, while the head had two GAU-M2S 38.5mm machine guns. However, its most impressive weapons were four seed-shaped M16M-D4 Wireless Gunbarrel pods mounted along the wings, two on each side. Each pod had two beam cannons inside it, and the thrusters mounted on them not only maneuvered the pods when they were launched but also served as additional boosters for the Nosferatu when they were attached.

_Great_, he thought, _now I've got him running around. At this rate the enemy won't last much longer._

For a moment he feared that that was the end of the show, but a beeping from his sensors reassured him otherwise. The other assorted warships of Armory One's patrol screen, _Nazca_-class destroyers and _Laurasia_-class frigates, were inbound and already launching mobile suits.

"Come on then, kiddos," he said with a laugh, "Time to play!"

….

Keeping some distance from the main fight, Athrun did what he could to harass the enemy with beam rifle fire while the ZAFT mobile suits took care of the heavy lifting. He wanted to do more, but with Cagalli still slumped over in his lap he knew that there was no way he could go all out here.

The Chaos was mixing it up with Shinn's machine in a furious duel. The green prototype was swift, darting around the red and white mobile suit and peppering the area with emerald beam fire before closing in to saber range. Fortunately Shinn was able to keep from suffering a major blow, and his skill with the combined anti-ship swords was evident in how he parried the Chaos' blows and went right into counterattacks. It wouldn't have surprised Athrun to learn that Shinn was a Red; his piloting here indicated he certainly had the talent to earn that prestigious position, although from his moves Athrun could tell that he wasn't a veteran.

Meanwhile, the Abyss had squared off with the four incoming ZAFT machines and was already cutting loose with its chest cannon and the six beam cannons mounted inside the binders. The backpack mounted beam cannons flipped forward and added their firepower to the barrage, and Athrun saw the red ZAKU, white ZAKU Phantom, and the two GuAIZ Rs move frantically to evade the bombardment. They were only partially successful; while the ZAKU and ZAKU Phantom were able avoid taking damage, the two GuAIZ Rs succumbed to the Abyss' withering attacks.

As he took a few more shots at the Chaos he saw the red unit and the white one split up to take the Abyss in a pincer movement. Rather than wait for the two prongs to take shape the blue prototype charged the white unit. The ZAKU Phantom cut loose with its beam rifle before bringing up its beam tomahawk and managed to block the Abyss' strike. Meanwhile the red ZAKU closed from behind and attempted to take it out, but the enemy pilot had sharp reflexes and climbed to avoid getting hit.

His gaze drifting up past the Abyss, Athrun caught a glimpse of the Gaia racing for altitude. It was possible that the third machine was going for the docks, but it was hard to tell; the flight path was not a straight line for the top of this half of the colony.

A groan from Cagalli took his attention away from the Gaia and to his passenger. "Cagalli! Can you hear me?"

She nodded, although her eyes looked hazy, and Athrun thought she might be suffering a concussion. Blood still trickled down her forehead from the cut, but at least she was conscious. "I think so…ow! Damn it, my head!"

Athrun sighed. "I'm sorry, that was my fault. I should've been more careful."

Amazingly he saw her shake her head and give him a weak smile. "Idiot… don't worry about it. Where are we?"

"In the middle of a fight," he replied, turning his attention back to the screen, "but not for long. Reinforcements are here, which means I'm getting you somewhere safe!"

"Where's that?" she asked, "We don't know where the shelters are."

Athrun shook his head, an idea coming to mind. "No, but I've got the next best thing. Hang on!"

….

Gripping the arms of the command chair, Talia's eyes narrowed as she watched the battle unfold on the main monitor. It was good to see Shinn, Lunamaria, and Rey engaging the enemy and holding their own, but it would've been better had Burt and Malik survived to be able to join them.

_Rest in peace, you two_, she thought solemnly, _and… forgive me._

She could not afford to dwell on the dead; the battle was still in full swing. For the moment the _Minerva _remained in her dock, though from the outside chatter Meyrin was relaying to her that was likely to change soon.

"The _Vidar_'s been destroyed!" the girl cried, "All her mobile suits have also been lost! The destroyer _Hawking _reports a battleship of unknown classification decloaked and attacked her from behind! Enemy mobile suits were launched nearly simultaneously with the _Vidar_'s loss."

"Mirage Colloid!" she fumed, "That's a treaty violation right there. Did the _Hawking _report the contact's markings and IFF signature?"

"Ma'am, they said the ship wasn't using a standard beacon and had no recognizable markings!" Meyrin replied, "It doesn't match anything listed in the official Alliance naval roster!"

"Are they renegades?" asked Arthur, "Pirates?"

"Save the speculation for later," Talia ordered, "We can worry about who they are after we've defeated them and secured Armory One! For now designate the unknown battleship as Bogey One! Have the _Hawking _and all active external forces send us every bit of data they pick up on that ship!"

Arthur nodded. "Aye, Captain."

"Captain, Impulse is on the line!" yelled Meyrin.

Talia nodded. "Put Shinn through."

The young pilot's voice appeared on the main monitor. "Captain, I need a Force Silhouette to fight these guys more effectively!"

Arthur stepped forward. "Shinn, we can't do that! You know we don't have the authorization to reveal that yet!"

"I'll allow it," Talia cut in.

Arthur turned to her. "But Captain, we can't…"

"There's no need to keep it a secret at this point," Talia replied before looking behind her, "Isn't that right, Chairman?"

Chairman Durandal was standing on the level above her, and he wasn't alone. Two of his aides were with him, along with a young brown-haired woman that Talia did not recognize. She wasn't dressed in a military or government uniform. In fact, she appeared to be a member of the press corps.

The Chairman looked momentarily startled that she had noticed him, but he quickly composed himself and nodded. "Yes, I agree. Holding it back at this point would be foolish."

"Chairman Durandal!" said Arthur with a start, "You're on board!"

"Yes," he replied before turning back to Talia, "I apologize for boarding without permission."

Talia smiled. "Well, it's not like I could refuse you entry. I'm fine with the aides too, but… who is she?"

The young woman stepped forward. "Marilyn Peterson, independent photo journalist, ma'am. I got separated from the press corps in the confusion and ran into the Chairman. Since I couldn't get to a shelter he was willing to bring me here for my safety."

"I'm sorry, Talia," said Durandal, "I hope this won't be a problem."

Talia nodded. "It's all right. Miss Peterson, as long as you do not interfere with our operations make yourself at home. We will look after you until we can safely disembark you somewhere."

Marilyn nodded and smiled. "Thank you, Captain."

Talia turned to her XO. "Arthur, don't just stand there. Get the Force Silhouette out there now!"

Arthur gulped and nodded. "Right away, Captain!"

As he XO moved to carry out her orders she looked back at Durandal, who smiled at her.

"Talia," he said, "you didn't seem surprised that I had boarded."

Talia shook her head. "I saw you board on one of the external cameras. I advise that you strap yourself in, Chairman. I doubt that we'll be sitting here for long."

Durandal nodded and took a seat in the VIP chair. "Of course. Command as you see fit, Talia; I'll stay out of your way."

Talia nodded. "Thank you, Chairman."

"Force Silhouette is on the catapult!" yelled Meyrin, "Launching now!"

"Excellent!" said Arthur, his earlier hesitancy now brushed aside with anticipation, "Let's see how they like it when Shinn uses _that _against them!"

"New report from the _Hawking_!" cried Meyrin, "Captain, new contacts are emerging from the L4 debris field!"

Talia's eyes widened in shock. "That can't be right! Have the _Hawking _confirm!"

"One moment!" said Meyrin.

A few seconds later her voice rang out through the bridge again. "_Hawking _confirms contacts, all unmarked and no conventional IFF! Contacts are all warships. Counting six _Typhoon_-class destroyers, two _Nelson_-class battleships, and an _Agamemnon_-class carrier! Mobile suit launches confirmed!"

Talia's eyes widened still further. "_Typhoons_? How's that possible?"

ZAFT hadn't been the only military in the Earth Sphere to commission new warship classes in the aftermath of the Treaty of Junius Seven. Even though the Earth Alliance fleets still held numerical superiority over ZAFT they were still forced to make do with reduced numbers, and a new ship design program had been instituted to address that and other fleet concerns and develop more effective combat vessels.

The _Typhoon_-class destroyer was a product of that program. At 210 meters in length the black warships were meant to combine the roles of the _Drake_-class escort ship and the _Nelson_-class battleship into a single vessel. The destroyer had a very sleek appearance, with a streamlined upper hull that curved slightly up and leveled off before getting to an upraised bridge and then lowering again until it came to the tail fin. It had been commented by some that the vessels actually bore a passing resemblance to the old _Typhoon_-class nuclear missile submarines once used by the long-since defunct Soviet Union, though personally Talia had a hard time picking out any similarities other than the name.

The new destroyers were formidable vessels. Their powerful engines and comparatively light hull allowed them to match the speed of ZAFT's _Nazca_-class destroyer, making the _Typhoon_-class the first such Earth Alliance vessel to garner that achievement. Armaments wise the destroyer borrowed elements from both the _Drake_-class escort ship and the heavier _Nelson_-class battleship. From the former it took the six bow-mounted torpedo launchers, and on the new destroyer those were mounted at the bow as well, capable of delivering a powerful spread against enemy warships or space stations. It also employed two of the _Drake_-class's four ten barrel missile launchers, one mounted on each side of the ship. From the _Nelson_-class the ship took the three twin beam turrets, two mounted on the upper hull and one on the bottom. For the topside guns one was in front of the bridge and the other was behind it. Also topside was an 8-cell Vertical Launch System, capable of deploying both anti-air and anti-ship missiles. Finally, the _Typhoon_-class deployed the _Nelson_-class's eight twin machine gun turrets for close-in defense. The warship also contained six mobile suits, typically of the newer Dagger L type, and these were deployed from a single linear catapult that came out in a gap up front between the upper and lower sections of the hull.

The _Typhoon_-class was certainly a potent design, but it was not invincible by any means. Its principle weakness was its light armor, a necessary feature in order to achieve its high speed but making it more suitable for hit-and-run strikes than prolonged slugging matches. Also, if the forward torpedo launchers or the side missile launcher were hit before they discharged their payloads then the result would be a pyrotechnic catastrophe.

"This has to be the Alliance attacking us!" shouted Arthur, "_Typhoon_-class destroyers are among the newest vessels in their fleet!"

"Let's not jump to conclusions just yet," said Durandal, "I've been made aware by our intelligence services of several recent shipjackings out at the L2 yards. It's entirely possible that we are dealing with a rogue faction."

Privately Talia hoped as much, though she had her doubts. The last thing she wanted was a return to full-scale war with the Earth Alliance, but for this whole attack to be the work of mere renegades was a hard pill to swallow.

One thing was for sure, though; the _Minerva _could no longer remain in her cradle. If the new battle group was attacking from the L4 debris field then the ZAFT task force assigned to protect Armory One would be horribly out of position since it had moved to respond to the strike from Bogey One. If the ZAFT forces here, not to mention the colony itself, were to stand a chance at surviving today then the new battleship had to take the field.

Talia turned to Durandal. "Chairman, I apologize, but at this rate the entire colony will be at risk. I must launch the _Minerva _at once if we're to salvage the situation."

To her relief she saw him calmly nod. "I understand, Talia. I trust your judgment in this matter."

She nodded and turned to Meyrin. "Contact docking control! We're taking the _Minerva _out at once!"

_It's time for our new battleship's combat debut_, she thought, _I just hope that she's ready!_

"Ma'am!" cried Meyrin, "I've got a ZAKU on the line, but it's not piloted by one of our soldiers!"

"What?" said Talia, "Patch it through at once!"

On the main monitor she saw a young man with dark blue hair and blue eyes… along with a familiar blond-haired woman with a trickle of blood running down her forehead.

"This is Alex Dino! I have Orb Chief Representative Cagalli Yula Athha with me in this mobile suit. She's wounded and needs immediate medical attention! _Minerva_, please respond!"

Talia turned to Durandal, who gave her a nod. She then turned back to Meyrin. "Let them board, and have a medical team standing by in the hangar!"

As Meyrin carried out her orders Talia looked at Arthur. "Get launch preparations underway at once! I want docking control to begin lowering us for launch as soon as that ZAKU's aboard!"

"Aye, Captain!" her XO replied.

….

"Heh," Auel chuckled as he gained altitude, "Slowpokes!"

He and Sting rained down fire on the three ZAFT mobile suits below as they ascended to meet Stella. The Gaia was almost in position to create their escape hatch, and it was up to the Abyss and Chaos to screen her. Fortunately with the green ZAKU breaking off and the superior speed of the Abyss and Chaos it had been relatively easy for Auel and Sting to keep ahead of the Coordinators and push them back with almost non-stop fire.

"Auel, watch out!" said Sting, "Something's happening below with that new model!"

Auel's eyes narrowed as he saw the unit with the giant swords actually pull back. It then put those swords away and the pack that they'd been returned to detached from the machine. Auel saw another pack meet up with the mobile suit almost as soon as the old one had left, and as it latched on to the unit its Variable Phase Shift Armor began to change color, this time settling on a blue and white design.

The new pack was a red and black one with four wings in an X-pattern. In its right hand it now held a beam rifle, while in its left it had ignited a violet beam saber. Also on the left arm was mounted a larger shield. The effects of the new pack were readily apparent as the ZAFT mobile suit rapidly accelerated and ascended ahead of its comrades.

"Shit," growled Sting, "Auel, here he comes!"

"I see him," snarled Auel as he unleashed a new bombardment, "Suck on this, fucktard!"

Crimson and emerald death flew forth, but the new model moved like a completely different machine now. It was much faster now than it had been earlier and when combined with the skills of its pilot it was quite capable of not only evading the shots but actually advancing through the barrage. The enemy raised his rifle and returned fire, forcing Auel and Sting to split up to avoid getting hit.

"Damn it!" yelled Auel as he continued to fire, "He just keeps coming!"

"Stella!" shouted Sting, "We need that escape route now! We're not going to be able to keep them off you much longer!"

"Hang on!" Stella replied, "Firing now!"

Up above, Auel saw the Gaia cut loose against the wall of the colony with its beam rifle. It fired shot after shot, and the section of the wall Stella was hitting soon began to glow orange, with multiple fractures showing.

"Auel, pay attention!" snapped Sting, "He's almost here!"

"Shit!" growled Auel as he turned back towards the new model.

Sting was right; the ZAFT machine had closed the gap at an incredible pace. It once again cut loose with precision fire from its rifle, and this time Auel was forced to use the shoulder-binders to protect himself from the beams.

"Bring it on!" he screamed as he brought up his beam lance.

Sting moved forward as well, his beam saber ignited and ready. In a moment the new model was upon them. Auel lashed out to with his lance, but to his astonishment the ZAFT pilot struck back not by parrying the blow but by cutting through the handle of the weapon, turning what remained into a useless piece of metal. The Chaos tried to strike from behind, but it was forced to break off due to beam rifle fire from the other two approaching ZAFT mobile suits.

"Stella!" roared Sting, "Now or never!"

"Hurry up, bitch!" Auel sneered.

"Shut up!" Stella shot back, "I've got this!"

A final shot from the Gaia was enough to breach the wall. A hole opened up, one easily large enough for a mobile suit to fit through. Immediately Auel could feel the pull of the vacuum of space, and he didn't fight it. Gunning his engines, he joined Sting and Stella in their flight from the colony.

"All right," said Sting, "Let's get out of here!"

….

"Those bastards!" cried Shinn, "How could they do that?"

When the three stolen mobile suits had ascended, Shinn had been under the impression that they would ultimately try to access the docks in the central part of the colony that connected the two main sections. Never had he imagined that they would actually blast their way out through the colony's wall.

"Considering the carnage they wrought below, I doubt they care too much about collateral damage," said Rey.

"We can't let them get away with this!" yelled Lunamaria, "We have to go after them!"

Shinn nodded. "Agreed. Let's go!"

Impulse and Lunamaria's ZAKU took off for the hole right away, but Rey was hesitant. "Shinn, Lunamaria, wait! We don't know the situation outside the colony! We can't just rush out there!"

"We have to!" Shinn replied, "It's _because _we don't know that we need to get out there! Besides, we have to stop those guys!"

"He's right, Rey!" said Lunamaria, "Come on, don't you have our backs?"

Shinn was worried for a moment, but he was relieved when Rey acquiesced. "Okay, I'm right behind you two."

Shinn braced himself as he passed through the hole. The damage could be fixed, and he hoped that by now the people that lived in this half of the colony had gotten to the shelters, but it still hurt him to know that their battle had caused this.

_They'll pay for this_, he mentally snarled, _They'll all pay!_

The scowl disappeared from his face, replaced by a look of astonishment as he saw what was happening outside the colony. "What the hell is this?"

If he'd thought the battle inside Armory One was intense then that engagement paled in comparison to the clash that was going on out here. A full-on space fight was underway, the likes of which hadn't been seen since the last war. An expanding debris field was all that remained of the cruiser _Vidar_, and Shinn could see an unknown battleship ripping into a _Nazca_-class destroyer with a hail of emerald beams. ZAKUs and GuAIZ Rs had deployed from the other ZAFT destroyers and frigates charged with defending the colony, but like the forces inside Armory One they were disorganized. Dagger Ls were engaging the ZAFT mobile suits, along with two unknown machines. The three stolen prototypes were making a beeline for the unidentified battleship.

"Shinn, look!" yelled Lunamaria, "Over by the L4 debris field!"

Shinn followed her instruction, and his eyes widened in shock. "You've got to be kidding!"

An entire battle group had emerged from the L4 debris field. The six black _Typhoon_-class destroyers had formed a curved vanguard, screening the two _Nelson_-class battleships and the single _Agamemnon_-class carrier behind them. The vessels bore no signature identifiers and were not broadcasting regular IFF beacons, so despite being models used by the Earth Alliance it was impossible to definitively determine whose flag they were really flying under. Out in front of the battle group was a horde of black Dagger Ls, and the entire force was heading for the colony.

"Our force is out of position!" said Rey, "They redeployed to fight the unknown battleship and now Armory One's completely exposed!"

"Hey, guys!" cried Lunamaria, "I've got a new contact emerging from the bottom of the colony. It's the _Minerva_!"

….

"Armory One docking control confirms we've completely cleared the colony!" shouted Meyrin, "Captain, we're good to go!"

_But go where?_, Talia thought solemnly, _How do we deploy what strength we have left in such a situation?_

No matter how she looked at things the situation appeared to be untenable. With most of Armory One's patrol screen currently mixed up with Bogey One and its mobile suits the logical deployment for the _Minerva _would be to shield the colony from the battle group that had emerged from L4. However, not only would she be outnumbered and outgunned but she did not have her mobile suits with her. Shinn, Lunamaria, and Rey were pursuing the stolen prototypes, and even if she recalled them she still did not know if that would be enough for the _Minerva _to triumph. There was also the fact that the PLANT Supreme Council Chairman was on board the battleship; by all rights Talia knew that she should've been focused on withdrawing and getting Durandal to a safe place. However, the new battle group was on an attack vector for Armory One, and with the brutality that the three hijackers had shown the colony Talia doubted that this force intended to show it any mercy. Over 170,000 people were on that colony; she couldn't just abandon them. A frigate and destroyer had broken off from the fight with Bogey One and were on their way to support the _Minerva_, but Talia did not know if they would make it in time.

Talia sighed as she issued her order. "Meyrin, have Shinn, Lunamaria, and Rey break off their pursuit of the stolen units. We're going to need their help over here."

Meyrin nodded. "Understood, Captain."

Talia turned to Durandal. "I'm sorry, Chairman."

Durandal shook his head. "Don't be, Talia. The lives on Armory One should come before those three machines."

Talia was relieved to hear that. "Thank you, sir. However… even with Shinn and the others with us, I'm not sure if we can win."

"I believe we can," said Durandal, "I trust your abilities, Talia."

Talia turned back to the main monitor, sparing one last look at the three stolen prototypes. It stung to let them get away like this, but what choice did she have?

Suddenly the sensor operator's voice rang out. "Captain, we've got an energy spike out there, coming from below the stolen prototypes… it's massive!"

Talia's gaze was still on the three hijacked machines when her subordinate spoke…

…which meant that she very clearly saw the Abyss get consumed by a tsunami of golden-yellow hellfire.

**Start "Last Impression"**

Her blood turned to ice, her face became as pale as snow, and she could've sworn her heart stopped beating. She'd only seen a blast like that during the last war; only _one _mobile suit had a weapon like _that_.

_No…_

_ It __**cannot **__be…_

_ Not __**him**__…_

The entire battlefield seemed to have frozen with that one shot, and Talia had a feeling that she knew damn well why. If this was her reaction to seeing a resurrected demon, then she could only imagine what the others on both sides of the fight were feeling.

"What the hell?" cried the sensor officer, "Captain, new contact! You've got to see this!"

The main monitor shifted, revealing the new contact…

…and changed _everything_.

It had clearly undergone some modifications since the last war. The color scheme was now primarily white and blue, with a bit of red beneath the cockpit and a red fin sticking out of each forearm. The shoulder armor had been streamlined, with a curved form rather than the rectangular hull segments from before. Two railguns had been added to the hips, and they appeared to be the same type used on the Freedom.

However, the most obvious change by far had been the replacement of the thruster pods with four angelic white wings, split into two pairs, one pair larger than the other. Out of the smaller pair flowed blue and white thruster fire, while out of the larger one came a stream of azure light waves.

Despite all these changes and more, the mobile suit was unmistakable. The green chest and eye sensors, the distinctive yellow head-crest, the panels concealing the shoulder-mounted machine cannons, a drawn and ignited emerald beam saber in its right hand, and that fearsome rifle in its left…

"That's impossible!" shouted Arthur, "It was destroyed! The whole world saw it get demolished!"

Talia numbly nodded. She had watched it too, and had breathed a sigh of relief when it had occurred.

Apparently that relief had been premature.

_I never believed that I would see you again…_

_ …Wing Zero!_

….

Underneath his mask, Colonel Nazara's eyes widened in amazement. He could feel the scars on his face beneath the mask begin to tingle as he looked upon the mobile suit that had just entered the battlefield.

_It's been modified_, he thought, _but there's no mistake. That's definitely Wing Zero!_

Slowly a smile began to creep across his face as he recalled their first encounter two years ago…

…the one that had given him those scars in the first place.

He chuckled as he poured power to his thrusters, rushing at this new enemy as fast as his mobile suit could take him.

"I've been waiting two years for this!" he cackled, "I just _knew _that the world was not rid of you yet! It's payback time, Wing Zero!"

….

"_Auel!_"

Stella was in a state of absolute shock at what had just occurred. She'd thought that they were home free; it would be child's play to make it through the fighting and dock with the _Girty Lue_. They had accomplished their mission, and all that had been left was to return to their ship and retreat.

And now Auel was dead.

And the mobile suit that had killed him was coming straight for her and Sting.

"You son of a bitch!" she heard Sting shout, "You'll pay for that!"

"Damn you!" cried Stella as she aimed at the mobile suit that was coming from below.

She and Sting opened fire in unison to avenge their fallen comrade. Emerald beams poured down at the incoming contact, but none of them found their mark. The enemy was incredibly swift, with the blue fire and azure light flowing from its four wings increasing in a brilliant burst as it weaved through their barrage.

"Get ready, Stella!" yelled Sting.

She brought up her beam saber as the blue and white mobile suit closed with her. Stella managed to block the strike from its emerald energy blade, but the power behind the blow was incredible, and she found herself being pushed back.

"What the hell is this thing?" she cried.

The new enemy broke off as the Chaos moved in for a flank attack. Stella saw Sting deploy his two weapons pod, and the fronts of them opened to launch their missiles. However, before they could let fly with their payloads the enemy opened fire with the two railguns mounted at its waist, and the precise shots caused the warheads to detonate _inside _the weapons pods and tear them apart.

"Oh, you _motherfucker_!" Sting snarled.

The two of them charged in, firing their rifles as they went. Once again the new mobile suit was too fast, weaving through their fire almost as if the pilot knew where they were going to shoot before they did. Stella's eyes widened in horror as she saw the machine rocket forward, propelled on a wave of blue fire and azure light, heading for the Chaos at a phenomenal speed.

"Sting, look out!" cried Stella.

She saw him raise his violet blade in preparation for the strike, but just before it reached saber range the enemy fired another salvo from its railguns. The precise shots slammed into the Chaos' cockpit, and while physical rounds could not pierce its Variable Phase Shift Armor the sheer power behind these slugs was enough to knock Sting off balance…

…and give the enemy an opening to stab its emerald blade through Sting's cockpit.

Her face paled and her eyes widened in horror as the Chaos exploded.

"_Sting!_"

Now the white-winged mobile suit turned towards her. Fear and rage battled within Stella. Auel and Sting had to be avenged, but if this foe could dispatch the two of them so easily then what chance did she have? Stella didn't know what she could do, but the anger building up within her was overpowering her fear, and she was determined to take this thing down.

However, before she could act the voice of Colonel Nazara came over the radio. "Stella, dive!"

Acting on instinct she obeyed the command. A split second latter Stella saw a hail of emerald beams fly through the space where she had just been. She watched as the new enemy folded its two larger wings in front of it, and a pair of shimmering blue energy barriers appeared over them, deflecting the barrage.

_No way_, she thought numbly, _it has __**energy shields**__?_

Turning back towards the source of the barrage, Stella saw not only the Nosferatu but also the Ronin coming in fast.

"Stella," said Nazara, "You must pull back; you'll run out of power soon!"

"But he killed Auel and Sting!" she cried, "He has to pay for that!"

"And he _will_," Nazara growled, "but you're not strong enough yet to fight him. Go back to the _Girty Lue _at once!"

Stella gulped and nodded. "Yes, sir."

….

_Well, now_, thought Heero Yuy as he watched the Gaia withdraw and the two new mobile suits move forward to engage him, _more new models. Today's just full of surprises… so much for keeping a low profile._

Clad in his black flight suit and helmet, the Gundam pilot knew that he had landed himself in a very tricky situation. Behind the helmet visor his Prussian blue eyes narrowed in concentration, but despite the dangerous circumstances he was completely calm, with not a single bead of sweat on his forehead or in his thick brown hair. His body was as athletic and toned as ever, and aside from a minor growth spurt that put him at almost the same height as Murrue he hadn't changed much physically over the past two years. Constantly assessing the rapidly shifting battlefield around him, the eighteen-year-old Perfect Soldier readied himself to meet the two oncoming mobile suits.

_One with wireless gunbarrels_, he thought, _and another with only a beam katana and CIWS… this should be interesting._

Regardless of the strength of his foes or their mobile suits he knew that he was more than up to the challenge, especially with the upgraded Wing Zero. The legendary Gundam was now officially designated the XXXG-00WA Wing Gundam Zero Albion, and if ZAFT and the Earth Alliance had hated fighting against the old version then Heero knew that they were absolutely going to _loath _taking onthis one.

Most of the core capabilities of Wing Zero remained with the Wing Zero Albion, but they had been significantly enhanced and many brand new features were also added to the machine. The legendary Twin Buster Rifle was still the crowning glory of the Gundam's armaments, and thanks to work Heero had done with Erica Simmons not only had its firepower been increased by twenty percent but the addition of new targeting sensors on the weapon itself and also within the mobile suit's forearms had improved accuracy by a full thirty percent. The clavicle-mounted machine cannons remained part of the arsenal, as did the two beam sabers, but added to the mix was a pair of waist-mounted MMI-M15 Xiphias rail cannons. When combined with Heero's considerable skill and the formidable ZERO System the arsenal was even more potent now than it had been in the last war.

The advancements and upgrades to the Gundam extended far beyond its weaponry. While the four white wings eliminated the Neo-Bird form that the original design was capable of they made up for that in so many other ways. For starters, both the inner and outer wing pairs housed the Gundam's propulsion systems. While the inner wings held more conventional thrusters, the outer wings had a special Voiture Lumiere electromagnetic-light-wave propulsion system, originally developed by the independent Deep Space Survey and Development Organization (DSSD) and acquired for Terminal thanks to the impressive intelligence network run by Eric Bristow. This combination of conventional thrusters and the Voiture Lumiere made the Wing Zero Albion extremely fast and agile, and Heero had measured the unit's new top speed as considerably higher than it had been with the old Neo-Bird form.

The two larger outer wings also took over the duties of shielding the Gundam since the older arm-mounted shield had been removed. Like the rest of the mobile suit all four wings were constructed from Gundanium alloy, and the two outer wings could act as heat shields during atmospheric reentry. Mounted within those two wings, in addition to the Voiture Lumiere, was a prototype energy shield system Erica had developed starting from the Planet Defensor technology Heero had provided her in the last war. The shield system, called the DSX-1 Shakō-tai, could deflect most energy and physical attacks, although a sustained and powerful barrage or an extremely heavy weapon like a positron cannon could overwhelm it. As for the smaller inner wings, not only did they house the conventional thrusters and stored the Gundam's beam sabers, but they also contained a modified version of the Deathscythe Hell's Hyper Jammer ECM Suite. The jammers were smaller than the ones carried on Duo's old machine, and Erica had used the designs provided by Heero to make them capable of distorting his Gundam's already-small sensor profile. It was that capability that had allowed Heero to infiltrate ZAFT's patrol screen without being detected.

The Gundam's communications suite had been completely overhauled. Its range had been significantly boosted and it had a brand new encryption system capable of relaying completely secure messages through any satellite network. Such a feature was very useful for Heero, especially since he planned on using it to report back to Murrue and the others once this fiasco had been settled. It was also much better able to scan and decrypt communications from other forces, and listening in on Armory One's internal radio traffic had been how he had discovered the theft of the Abyss, Chaos, and Gaia.

Heero'd had to make a quick decision on whether or not to interfere in the rapidly unfolding battle. He'd initially wanted to maintain his role as an observer but the entrance of the battle group from the L4 debris field combined with the deployment and swift advance of the two new models and the regular Dagger Ls from the decloaked battleship had forced his hand. The Gundam pilot had decided the best course of action would be to intercept and eliminate the three stolen prototypes as quickly as possible. Once that was complete he would then attack the new battle group that had emerged from the L4 debris field. He had fulfilled two-thirds of his first objective, but the arrival of the new gunbarrel machine had stopped him from going after the Gaia. Now the last hijacked unit was retreating, and Heero knew that at this point he would have to let it go.

_It's been awhile since I've had a matchup like this_, he thought as the gunbarrel mobile suit moved out ahead of the one with the beam katana, _Bring it on._

….

Nazara could hardly contain his excitement as he rushed towards Wing Zero. Adrenaline was coursing through his veins like never before, the thrill of the imminent clash matched only by his fury at the thought of how their last battle had gone.

_Not this time_, he thought, _This time I'm going to rip you apart!_

"All right," he heard Sam say over the radio, "Finally someone who can fight!"

Nazara shook his head. "No, Sam! Go after the fourth prototype. Destroy or capture, I do not care. This one is _mine_!"

Once again he heard that insolent chuckle, but he didn't care. "You're the boss."

As the Ronin broke off Nazara brought the four gunbarrels, his rifle, and his linear guns to bear on Wing Zero. He cut loose with a furious barrage, determined to blast the mobile suit into atoms.

Of course, his foe wasn't about to make it easy on him. A brilliant burst of blue thruster fire and azure light from the four white wings propelled the mobile suit forward at blinding speed. Wing Zero was weaving its way through the bombardment like nothing Nazara had ever seen before; it was _far _faster than it had been in their clash at the Second Battle of Jachin Due.

Nazara sneered. "So you've got some new tricks, huh? Well so do I!"

The Nosferatu continued to pour fire at Wing Zero, altering the angle of its gunbarrels to keep the enemy off balance. Unfortunately the enemy seemed to be one step ahead of him, and before the Colonel knew it the mobile suit had closed to beam saber range.

There was a brilliant clash as the emerald and violet blades met. Sparks of energy flew everywhere, and Nazara was amazed at the power behind Wing Zero's strike. The Nosferatu's nuclear reactor meant that it was better able to withstand a blade-to-blade encounter with a powerful enemy, but even then the Colonel still realized that he was actually being pushed back. He maneuvered his gunbarrels to flank the enemy, but his foe had apparently seen the move coming and broke off, bringing its outer wings around and using their shimmering blue energy shields to deflect the barrage.

Then Wing Zero returned fire with a brilliant blast from its legendary rifle. Nazara was forced to dive to evade the shot, and as he reoriented himself towards his foe Wing Zero was already closing in on him. Once again their beam sabers met, and once again Nazara tried to set his foe up in a gunbarrel pincer. Wing Zero broke off after the exchange again, but instead of just pulling away the mobile suit went to Nazara's upper right and sliced one of the gunbarrels in half before putting distance between itself and the Nosferatu.

Nazara growled as the weapon was destroyed. "Bastard! I'm not finished yet!"

**End "Last Impression"**

….

"Holy shit…" muttered Shinn.

Sure, nothing today had gone the way that he had expected it to, but the very _last _thing he'd planned on seeing was a mobile suit that was supposed to have been destroyed after the end of the last war. Not only that, but apparently it had been upgraded and was now more powerful than ever.

"Did… did you guys see that?" said Lunamaria softly, like she couldn't believe what was happening, "Tell me I'm not the only one that just saw that!"

Shinn certain couldn't blame her for that.

Even Rey, normally the picture of cool and collected, could not conceal his surprise. "That's impossible…"

Shinn was in full agreement with that. Not only was Wing Zero apparently back from the mechanical dead, but it had just destroyed two of the stolen prototypes in a matter of _seconds_ whereas Shinn and his friends had only been able to drive them from Armory One and attempt to pursue them. The Gaia would've soon joined the Abyss and Chaos were it not for the intervention of another mobile suit… one that the Impulse's sensors were telling Shinn was nuclear powered.

He was snapped out of his little funk by the voice of Meyrin on the radio. "Shinn, Rey, Luna, where are you guys? We need you over here now!"

Checking his sensors Shinn saw the _Minerva _preparing to square off with the incoming unidentified battle group. The odds against the ship would be long as it was, but without mobile suit support she didn't have a chance in hell. Still, this latest development could not go ignored either.

"Meyrin, what about Wing Zero?" he asked, "You guys are seeing this, right?"

"We are," Meyrin replied, "and the Captain's orders are to ignore it for now!"

Shinn was stunned. "_Ignore it?_ Meyrin, _what the hell?_"

"Hey!" Lunamaria snapped, "Don't talk to my sister that way!"

"Shinn, I'm sorry, but those are the Captain's orders!" said Meyrin, "So far Wing Zero's only attacked the stolen prototypes and one of the unknown mobile suits. As long as it's not attacking us then the Captain wants us to focus on the units that _are_!"

"She's right, Shinn," said Rey, "and without our help there's no way the _Minerva _will survive."

Shinn sighed; they had a point. "Okay, we're coming!"

"Incoming contact, moving fast!" cried Lunamaria, "Shinn, it's heading right for you!"

Once again his eyes widened, and as he checked his display he saw a black mobile suit with a red skull in a diamond on its chest heading right for him. He saw no other weapons apart from CIWS and a beam katana, but Shinn didn't take that to mean that this fight would be an easy one.

"I'll take care of this guy!" he said, "Luna, Rey, go help the _Minerva_! I'll catch up when I'm done here!"

"Got it," Lunamaria replied, "Good luck!"

"Be careful, Shinn," said Rey as the two of them pulled away.

Shinn nodded. "You too."

**Start "The Only Thing I Know For Real"**

He raised his rifle and fired off a few shots at the approaching machine, but it dodged his fire with what seemed to be contemptuous ease. The enemy rapidly closed the distance and Shinn barely had time to bring his beam saber up to block an overhand strike from the beam katana.

Shinn tried to counter, but the enemy had swiftly transitioned into a second attack, this time a horizontal slash. Once again Shinn was able to deflect the blow, but he found himself quickly giving ground to his enemy.

"Damn it!" he hissed, "This guy's good!"

After parrying another attack Shinn finally found an opening to counter. Gunning his engines he pushed forward and hit the black mobile suit with his shield. He followed that up with a beam saber thrust, but the enemy was able to recover in time to redirect the blow. Then the black machine made a counterattack of its own, once again forcing Shinn onto the defensive.

_I don't have time for this_, he thought as he traded strikes with his foe, _There's too much at stake here for me to be stuck in some duel!_

The unknown battleship that had downed the _Vidar _was still mauling the colony's patrol screen. A _Laurasia_-class frigate had just fallen to concentrated fire from its bow beam cannons, while the battleship's four black Dagger Ls worked in tandem with its CIWS and missile launchers to shred any ZAFT mobile suits that tried to attack them. Out of the corner of his eye Shinn could see the upgraded Wing Zero continuing its fierce clash with the gunbarrel mobile suit, weaving through and deflecting emerald particle beams while returning fire with its legendary rifle and crossing sabers with its foe.

Lunamaria and Rey were rushing towards the _Minerva _as fast as they could, but it was a race against the clock; a horde of black Dagger Ls had advanced well out in front of the enemy battle group and would soon be upon ZAFT's new battleship. A _Laurasia_-class frigate and a _Nazca_-class destroyer were closer and had already deployed ZAKUs and GuAIZ Rs to aid the vessel but they would be hard pressed to fight off the approaching force. Shinn's orders were clear; he had to get to the _Minerva _and fight alongside her, and in order to do that he had to take care of his current adversary as fast as possible.

As if sensing his frustration a male voice came over the radio on an open channel, and Shinn knew that it was his foe. "Eyes over here, boy! Your dance is with me!"

Shinn shook his head in disgust as he parried another blow. "Dance? This isn't a game, you bastard!"

He heard his enemy chuckle as Shinn struck back. "So uptight. You really need to loosen up, boy."

"Let's see you say that after I kick your ass!" Shinn shouted.

The Impulse and the black mobile suit continued to exchange blows, and while Shinn was occasionally able to make some offensive moves by and large his enemy was the one in command of this fight. The enemy moved with incredible speed and precision, making well timed attacks, blocks, and counters. It was clear to Shinn that he was fighting an experienced foe, but he wasn't about to let that intimidate him.

"You know," he heard his foe say as Shinn managed to make a horizontal slash at him, one that was expertly parried, "you're not half bad. I'm almost tempted to let you walk away from this one; you'd be much more fun to fight once you had a few more battles under your belt."

"Fun?" said Shinn incredulously as he blocked a swift strike, "This isn't fun at all!"

"Perhaps not for you," his enemy replied, "but there are those of us that get our kicks this way. Maybe once you get a taste for it you'll change your mind!"

"Just shut up already!" Shinn yelled as their blades met again.

His foe chuckled. "Temper, temper… you won't last long if you let yourself get riled up so easily."

Shinn ground his teeth together as the frustration built within him. His friends and the entire colony were at risk here and here he was stuck in a duel with a maniac.

"I don't care what you say," Shinn growled as he blocked another slash, "You're not going to defeat me!"

**End "The Only Thing I Know For Real"**

….

"Here they come!" cried the sensor operator.

On the main monitor Talia could see the lead Dagger L squadrons moving in to attack her ship. Off in the distance she could see the capital ships were actually taking a different vector, and she realized that they were going to try to move around the _Minerva _while she was occupied with the mobile suits and attack Armory One directly.

"CIWS and interceptor missiles, fire at will!" she ordered, "Helm, no matter what happens, keep us between the enemy warships and the colony!"

Streams of bullets filled the sky around the battleship as the CIWS opened up. Several small missiles also flew from their launchers and raced towards their targets. A handful of Dagger Ls were downed by the anti-air fire but the rest were able to go evasive, with some shooting down missiles and others taking the fire on their shields.

Fortunately the _Minerva _no longer stood alone; the ZAKUs and GuAIZ Rs launched from the destroyer _Neil deGrasse Tyson _and the frigate _Fermi _were engaging the enemy units. Meanwhile Lunamaria's ZAKU and Rey's ZAKU Phantom were mere seconds away from joining the fray.

Unfortunately the destroyer and the frigate themselves were still a little ways off, and Talia needed them to join the battleship as quickly as possible if they were to stand a chance at halting the enemy's advance. She would have to play things very carefully if she wanted to get her ship and crew through this mess in one piece. Meanwhile a vicious furball was unfolding around the ship, and while the ZAFT pilots had scored a few kills two ZAKUS and a GuAIZ R had already fallen to enemy fire. Her comrades were fighting well, but Talia realized that from the way they were fighting the enemy pilots were likely combat veterans, and there were very few of those on ZAFT's side of the fight out here.

"Can we get a firing solution on any of the enemy warships?" she asked.

"Not yet," Arthur replied, "The distance is still too great!"

"Keep trying," Talia ordered, "As soon as you get a clear shot, take it!"

The ship rumbled as a Doppelhorn Dagger pounded the battleship's starboard side. "Damage report!"

"Armor's holding for now," said an officer, "but we need to get that thing off us before it can concentrate its fire in that spot!"

Talia could see the unit that had scored the hit on screen, and it did indeed look like it was trying to keep itself oriented on that particular spot despite fire from the CIWS and the missile launchers. Then she saw an emerald beam pierce the black Dagger L and destroy it.

"Hey!" came Lunamaria's voice over the radio, "Sorry we're late!"

Up on the main monitor Talia watched as Lunamaria's custom red ZAKU fired off a volley from its rifle, taking out another Dagger L and forcing others to scatter. To Lunamaria's left Talia saw Rey's white ZAKU Phantom open up with its rifle as well, scoring a kill and continuing to break up the enemy's formations.

"Luna!" cried Meyrin with joy.

Talia smiled. "Excellent timing, you two. Where's Impulse?"

"Engaged with another enemy," Rey replied, "and one that is apparently quite skilled."

Adjusting her personal monitor, Talia brought up the Impulse's engagement. She could see that Rey was quite right as Shinn continued to cross blades with a custom black mobile suit wielding a beam katana. Occasionally Impulse was able to get off a shot or two with its beam rifle but by and large the enemy appeared able to keep the fight mostly close-quarters, and it clearly had Shinn on the ropes.

_Damn it_, she thought, _Without the Impulse over here our defense is severely weakened. Shinn, you have to hurry up!_

"We'll just have to trust that he can handle it," she said to her pilots, "In the meantime continue to defend the _Minerva_!"

"Roger that," the two replied in unison.

"Sensors," said Talia, "I don't suppose Wing Zero's on its way over here to save our hides, is it?"

"Negative, Captain," said the operator, "It's still engaged with an unknown enemy."

Talia nodded. "So we're on our own, then. We'll just have to make do."

_Strange_, she mused, _after encountering that machine in the past as an enemy it feels odd to find myself in a position where it could potentially be an ally. Yes, Wing Zero has not communicated with us yet, but neither has it attacked us. I suppose I shouldn't be greedy. After all, if it turns on us, we're dead._

CIWS and missile fire continued to flow from the _Minerva _into the fray as the ZAFT mobile suits mixed it up with their unidentified counterparts. The first enemy wave had been bloodied, but reinforcements had already joined the party, and the mobile suits from the _Tyson _and _Fermi _had suffered additional casualties.

The ship rumbled from more impacts, though they weren't as hard as the previous one had been. Talia took that as a good sign since it meant that the Dagger Ls with the heavier Doppelhorn packs had either taken more casualties or were just unable to line up shots on the _Minerva_. Their situation was still grim though, and with every ZAKU and GuAIZ R that fell the heavier the burden became for Lunamaria and Rey.

_It would be better if Luna had her Gunner pack equipped_, she thought, _but we can't afford to have her dock with us and switch out packs right now._

"Incoming squadron!" cried the sensor operator, "It's heading right for the bridge!"

Talia's eyes narrowed as she saw a group of four Dagger Ls, two with Doppelhorn packs and two in standard configuration, coming in fast. "Concentrate fire along their vector and have Luna and Rey intercept them!"

On the screen she saw one of the Doppelhorn Dagger Ls get ripped apart by an interceptor missile. The second one fell prey to beam fire from Lunamaria, and one of the regular units was eliminated by rifle fire from Rey. However, the fourth machine was still intact and incoming… and its rifle was trained on the bridge.

_No_, she thought as her face paled, _It can't end here!_

She saw the enemy's rifle barrel glow green, a nanosecond away from a beam flying forth and piercing the bridge…

…before an emerald blade sliced the machine in half.

Talia's eyes widened in shock as the Dagger L exploded. A curved emerald blade seemed to have materialized out of thin air.

"What the hell was that?" asked Arthur.

Talia watched as the space directly in front of the bridge seemed to shift. The emerald blade now appeared to be attached to a long pole, and a large black figure was becoming visible.

"A stealth unit?" asked Meyrin, "One of ours?"

"Can't be," said Arthur, "We don't have any…"

The black shadow continued to shift, materializing as a mobile suit… one completely unlike any that Talia had ever seen before. The weapon that had destroyed the attacking Dagger L was now clearly recognizable as a beam scythe, which she supposed was fitting given the appearance of this new machine. It was predominantly black and dark grey. A jet black cloak that had been over its main hull now opened up, taking on the appearance of the wings of a bat. It was like the Grim Reaper had been brought to the physical world in mobile suit form.

"Ma'am!" cried Meyrin, "Open channel transmission coming from the new contact!"

"Get it on speaker!" Talia ordered.

A surprisingly cheerful voice rang out on the bridge, its good cheer all the more disturbing thanks to the grim proclamation it was making.

"_The God of Death is back from Hell!_"

**Preview for next time!**

_The battle for Armory One continues, and even with the arrival of Wing Zero Albion on the scene the final outcome is not yet secure. Locked in a duel with the formidable Colonel Nazara, Heero is unable to act to stop Phantom Pain's Force Alpha from heading for the colony. Fortunately, the arrival of some old friends may be enough to turn the tide of the battle. Next time, on "Destiny's Call", Episode Three: The Five Gods of War._

_Those who lay eyes on a Gundam shall not live to tell the tale…_

**Author's Notes: **All right, it's official; the other four Gundam boys have arrived! Unfortunately you'll have to wait for the next chapter to witness their glorious beat down of Phantom Pain's forces.

If you're a fan of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance then you know that Sam Rodrigues is from that game. He's not the only character that I'll be bringing over from that game to my fic, and characters from other games may also make an appearance. If you read Journey to a New Battlefield then you're already familiar with how I like to handle stuff like that.

Phantom Pain's been greatly expanded for the purpose of this story when compared to their role in SEED Destiny canon. Consider them to be more like the Third Reich's SS than just a special forces organization, and yes, that Patriot Youth that I mentioned early in the chapter is pretty much the Atlantic Federation's Hitler Youth.

Hope you liked the chapter! Please review!


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Notes: **All right, next chapter is up! The periods between releases should be getting longer from here on out; the plot's moving forward and more and more characters are taking the stage. I know you guys and girls are an eager bunch, but you also know how I work; long, detailed chapters at the price of a considerable wait time before updates.

Disclaimer since I haven't done it already in this fic; I don't own Gundam Wing, Gundam SEED, or Gundam SEED Destiny. This is something I'm writing because it's my idea of fun.

Two songs for the chapter, both from Gundam Wing: "When the Dragon Swims, Everything Ends" and "Searching for Peace's Buried Corpse".

Enjoy!

**Episode Three: The Five Gods of War**

"That _idiot_," Heero growled.

It was bad enough that Armory One was under attack by what he was pretty damn sure was an Earth Alliance black force. It was bad enough that Heero knew that Miriallia had been in the half of the colony that was attacked, operating as a Terminal spy, and had no idea if she was alive or dead. It was bad enough that the enemy had attacked on two fronts with a Mirrage Colloid-equipped battleship and a battle group concealed in the L4 debris field. It was bad enough that he had been forced to reveal himself and the Wing Zero Albion in order to intercept the stolen prototypes and was now locked in a fierce duel with an unknown mobile suit piloted by a very skilled and aggressive soldier.

Heero's entire mission, originally just an observation assignment, had become an utter fiasco.

And now an old friend, whom he had _no idea _had journeyed over to the Cosmic Era from his old world until _just now_, had the potential to turn things into a _complete clusterfuck _if Heero let him make another open channel broadcast.

Duo Maxwell's appearance on this battlefield, or anywhere in the Cosmic Era for that matter, had certainly _not _been on Heero's list of things that could happen today on this mission. From his very brief observation Heero could tell that the Deathscythe Hell had been upgraded, and Heero had a feeling it wasn't the only machine from his old war that had come over here. After all, where one Gundam pilot went, inevitably the others would find their way there.

Heero had just never considered that that could also apply to inter-universe travel.

Despite this completely unforeseen event and what it implied the Gundam pilot remained calm, his earlier utterance being the only sign of just how off guard this had taken him. Maintaining his focus here would be crucial, especially considering that he was still engaged in combat, and even though his enemy's mobile suit had lost one of its gunbarrel drones it still had three more and the rest of its arsenal to wield against him.

Thinking quickly, Heero sprang into action immediately. While parrying a beam saber strike from his violet adversary he sent off a quick tight-beam transmission to the upgraded Deathscythe Hell. It was not audio; it was just a very brief data packet with the encryption for a secure communications link.

_Duo_, Heero thought as he pulled away from his foe, deflecting a barrage of emerald beams and linear gun rounds with his energy shields, _if you don't switch over to this channel I will kill you._

Gunning his engines, Heero went into a climb, his goal to put some distance between himself and his foe while putting himself into a better position to observe the rapidly shifting battlefield and formulate the best plan to move forward. With the combined power of its conventional thrusters and the Voiture Lumiere system the Wing Zero Albion was more than capable of outrunning its foe, but Heero didn't intend to completely break off his fight with the violet mobile suit; he was merely putting it on hold. Glancing over towards Duo's side of the fight, he saw that the enemy mobile suits had temporarily backed off the _Minerva_, no doubt evaluating this new arrival. It was a small favor that Heero would gladly take considering that he would need every second possible to come up with a plan and get Duo in on it, and he was expecting Deathscythe's pilot to get on the line with him very soon.

Sure enough, it did not take long for Duo to reply to Heero's burst transmission, and much to Heero's relief it was on the encrypted channel. The familiar face of the L2 native appeared on Heero's screen, and the Perfect Soldier mused that, much like himself, physically the God of Death hadn't changed much over the past two and a half years.

"Yo, buddy!" said Duo, "Quite the party you've got going on here!"

"What are you doing here?" asked Heero.

Duo chuckled. "Come on, man. It's been over two years and _that's _what you've got to say? We worked our butts off to find a way to come after you! Sheesh, talk about ungrateful."

Heero's eyes narrowed. "How many is 'we'?"

Duo shrugged. "Oh, just us four Operation Meteor alumni. Figured a class reunion was in order, if you get my drift."

"Where are they?" Heero asked, still ascending to stay ahead of his adversary's violet mobile suit.

Duo grinned. "Just at the edge of the battlefield. I'm the recon… and a happy little surprise for whoever's attacking this colony."

Heero nodded, a plan quickly forming in his mind. "We'll use this as our tactical channel. I'm sending you data on the forces both sides are using. Consider the ones defending the colony to be neutral for now; they're not my allies."

"Got it," Duo replied, "I'll tell the others to avoid hitting them unless they try something stupid."

"Good," said Heero, "For now, focus on securing the space around the colony and that battleship you just saved. Duo, whatever you do, do _not _call my mobile suit Wing Zero."

Duo raised an eyebrow. "What? Buddy, you may have upgraded it, but I know Wing Zero when I see it."

"I know," Heero replied, "but trust me; if the wrong people hear those two words it'll make things even more complicated. For now just call it the Albion; I'll explain everything later. Pass that on to the others."

His old friend still looked confused, but much to Heero's relief Duo nodded. "All right, Heero. You've been here for over two years, so the way I see it this is your turf. I'm sure there's one hell of a story behind all of this."

"I'll brief you when things calm down," said Heero, "You and the others concentrate your efforts against that battle group. Defend the colony and that battleship. I'll handle things over here. Do _not _make any more open channel broadcasts unless you absolutely have to."

Duo grinned. "You got it, buddy. Time to show these guys what a _real _party looks like."

Heero nodded. "Roger that. And Duo?"

"What's up?" he asked.

Heero gave him a very small smile. "It's good to see you again."

The gesture clearly took Duo aback, and Heero couldn't blame him. After all, none of his old friends knew just how much he had changed since he had left his old world.

Still, the God of Death did return the smile. "Same here, Heero. Deathscythe Omega, out."

_So that's what it's called now_, Heero mused as Duo disappeared from the screen, _I'll have to pry the specs from him later. I'm sure it's not the only Gundam that's been upgraded since I left…_

Confident that the tide was about to turn, Heero ceased his ascent and faced his oncoming enemy. He hit the thrusters, and on a wave of blue fire and azure light Wing Zero Albion shot towards its foe.

_I don't know who you are_, Heero thought as he weaved through a barrage of beams and linear gun rounds, swiftly closing the distance with his foe, _but I'm going to assume that you know who _I _am. Well, guess what?_

_ Four more of __**me **__just entered our battlefield!_

….

Quatre Raberba Winner watched and listened as Duo wrapped up his very quick status report on Sandrock Saladin's monitor. "So that's the score. You guys got all that?"

His blue eyes narrowing as they looked past his platinum-gold bangs at his fellow Gundam pilot, Quatre nodded as he analyzed the situation. "I think so. Trowa, Wufei?"

"Affirmative," Trowa Barton replied.

"Copy that," said Chang Wufei.

Sandrock Saladin, Heavyarms Arsenal, and Altron Custom were all positioned above the unfolding battlefield, unnoticed by either side. At one part of the fight Quatre could see Heero's upgraded Wing Zero mixing it up with a violet machine with three remote-gun-drones that he had never seen before, while on Duo's end the enemy mobile suits that his earlier appearance had temporarily scared off had regrouped and were coming back in for another round. Meanwhile the nine warships that had come out of the nearby debris field were advancing, and Quatre knew that it would not be long until they got into firing range of both the battleship Duo was defending along with the hourglass-shaped colony.

"Here's a data packet that Heero sent me," said Duo, "It's got specs and IFF information on pretty much everyone on this battlefield."

Quatre nodded as his friend sent the data through, a plan already forming in his mind. "Okay. Wufei, go back up Duo and intercept mobile suits heading for that battleship and the colony. Trowa and I will take the fight to the enemy capital ships."

Wufei chuckled. "Figures that I'd have to bail his ass out."

"Hey!" snapped Duo, "I heard that, jackass!"

Quatre smiled at the banter. "Cool it, guys. Trowa, you ready?"

"I've got your back, Quatre," he replied.

"All right," said Quatre, "Let's move out!"

….

The entire bridge crew of the _Minerva _still seemed to be recovering from today's latest shock, namely the appearance of an unidentified stealth mobile suit that had just saved their lives. Meyrin definitely counted herself among that number; this was certainly not how she'd pictured her first battle going.

She and the others would have to recover quickly though, at least if a warning from the sensor operator was anything to go by. "Captain, the Dagger Ls have regrouped and are coming in for another attack! A reinforcement wave is joining them!"

Studying her display, Meyrin saw an alert on her console. "Captain, that black mobile suit in front of us is making another broadcast, and we've got a visual feed this time! It's a tight-beam directed right at us!"

Captain Gladys nodded. "Put it on screen, Meyrin."

She followed the order, and when the speaker appeared on the main monitor Meyrin was rather taken aback. The figure was male and clad in a black flight suit, but even through his helmet visor Meyrin could see a pair of charming blue eyes and a few bangs of brown hair, along with what looked to be a long braided tail at the edge. He had a relaxed smile on his face, and Meyrin was surprised to find herself thinking that this mysterious pilot was actually kind of cute.

She gave her head a small, furtive shake. Where had _that _come from? Now she was thinking like her older sister. It certainly wasn't professional, and if she wanted to survive here today Meyrin mentally told herself that she had to focus on the battle and not that cute guy up on the screen who had just saved her life.

"Look, we're on a tight schedule here, so I'll make this quick," said the stranger, "I'm here to help, and I've got some friends incoming who are here for the same. So, I'll make this simple; do anything stupid, and that help goes away. Also, I'll rip your ship a new one, or several new ones depending on how pissed off you make me. Later!"

"That insolent punk!" yelled Arthur as the stranger disappeared, "Who does he think he is?"

_Whoever he is_, thought Meyrin, _I have to admit that he's got balls._

"Arthur," said the Captain, "that's enough! We have more important things to worry about right now."

The _Minerva_'s XO nodded. "Yes, Captain."

"He mentioned that he had friends incoming," said Durandal, "Any sign of them?"

"Not yet, sir," replied the sensor operator.

"We can't make any assumptions about them," said Captain Gladys, "For now we continue on as before. Brace for mobile suit interception and prepare for long-range capital ship engagement!"

As Meyrin watched the black mobile suit move forward to engage a new squadron of Dagger Ls she looked frantically for her sister. She found Lunamaria's red ZAKU Warrior at the edge of the screen, its beam rifle and tomahawk raised and ready for action.

_Please, be careful, sister_, she thought, _Don't you dare die on me!_

….

"Here they come, Rey!" cried Lunamaria.

She tried to sound confident as the Dagger Ls made their approach, but in fact Lunamaria was anything but. The strange black mobile suit may have saved the _Minerva _and her sister but that did not change the fact that they were very much outnumbered. Also, as Lunamaria saw the black machine move forward it became apparent that its pilot would make no efforts to communicate with her or Rey to coordinate their actions; they would have to figure something out themselves.

"Lunamaria," said Rey, "cover the ship's left flank. I will focus on the right. It appears this stranger is intent on moving up the middle."

Lunamaria nodded, realizing Rey was right. "Okay."

Up ahead she saw the strange black mobile suit increase its acceleration, its emerald beam scythe blazing. Its bat-like wings folded back in to form a cloak, and when the Dagger Ls fired Lunamaria was stunned to see their beams get deflected. Narrowing her eyes she thought she could see sparks from some kind of energy field just above the black cloak.

_An anti-beam cloak?_, she thought, _Why don't we have something like that?_

When the mobile suit got close enough the cloak reopened and the machine made a broad swing with its scythe. Three Dagger Ls fell in that single swing, and in that instance Lunamaria felt that the mobile suit truly was a Grim Reaper.

The strange black machine didn't stop there. Its pilot hit the thrusters and the mobile suit moved with incredible speed and agility, weaving through additional enemy fire before taking down another Dagger L with its scythe. With another broad swing two more mobile suits fell before the self-proclaimed God of Death.

"Whoa…" she said softly, looking on in awe as the mechanical Reaper continued to cut a swath of destruction through the enemy ranks.

"Lunamaria, stay focused," Rey admonished her, "We've got incoming!"

She nodded, turning her rifle on a trio of Dagger Ls. "I see them!"

She cut loose with a burst of emerald fire, but the enemy machines quickly scattered. Bringing up her shield, Lunamaria blocked return fire before letting fly with another burst. This time her shots found their mark, and a Dagger L was cut down by particle beam fire. However, that still left two more in this group for her to take care of, and they didn't look like they intended to go easy on her.

As she brought her beam tomahawk up to block a saber strike she saw Rey was similarly engaged with another group of Dagger Ls. The white ZAKU Phantom had opened up with the missile launchers in its Blaze pack, letting loose a flurry of warheads. CIWS fire from Rey's foes took out some of the incoming warheads, but the barrage was still enough to take down two of the Dagger Ls.

_Rey's got things covered on his end_, she thought, _Worry about your own fight!_

She managed to push back one of her foes but as soon as she had done that the other was coming in for another saber attack. Lunamaria was barely able to turn around and meet her foe's strike, but she was unable to counterattack; once again the other Dagger L was moving in to flank her. Hitting her engines and climbing, she was able to evade the attack, but Lunamaria had to wonder just how long she could keep this up. Situations like this were why their lessons at the academy had stressed teamwork, but in the current situation it was all she and her comrades could do just to stay alive. The _Minerva _continued to pour CIWS fire and interceptor missiles into the fray, but Lunamaria knew that soon the battleship would be trading barrages with the incoming enemy battle group, and given the disparity of numbers she feared that the warship might not survive.

She squeezed off a few more beams, hoping to keep the enemy at bay while she formulated some sort of plan. The move only bought her a few seconds as the Dagger Ls scattered again but quickly regrouped and came right at her. Steeling herself, Lunamaria charged head-on at the one on the right, firing her rifle as she went. None of her shots connected, but they did keep her target on the defensive until she managed to close the distance and hack into it with her beam tomahawk.

"Gotcha!" she shouted as she cut through the Dagger L's torso and the mobile suit exploded.

Unfortunately, while she had destroyed her target, the other Dagger L had gotten into an ideal position for a flank attack and was already charging her, beam saber at the ready. Lunamaria moved to meet it, but she feared that she was already too late.

The enemy's violet blade was raised for a killing strike…

…and then an emerald serpent slammed into the machine from above.

_Emerald serpent?_, she thought numbly, blinking a few times as she watched the black Dagger L get destroyed, _Wait… what the fuck?_

She followed the green and yellow dragon-like device as it was pulled back upward, and what she saw took her breath away.

"No way…" she said softly.

**Start "When the Dragon Swims, Everything Ends"**

It was a predominantly green mobile suit, one that looked to be outfitted entirely for close-quarters-combat. That dragon-like weapon that Lunamaria had just watched save her life was actually one of a pair, with each device mounted on one of the mobile suit's arms. An emerald double-bladed beam trident was ignited in its right arm, and streams of blue fire were pouring from what looked like very powerful thrusters mounted on the machine's back.

She watched in awe as the emerald beast shot forward with blinding speed, charging headlong into a group of Dagger Ls. The enemy machines opened up with a hail of particle beams, but this new mobile suit put on a display of agility that Lunamaria could only marvel at. Those few beams that posed a direct threat to the unit were blocked by those two large dragon heads, which Lunamaria guessed were heavily reinforced to serve as both offensive weapons and shields for times like this.

Then the strange green mobile suit reached an appropriate range for its beam trident and began tearing into the Dagger Ls. The mobile suit whirled the weapon with speed and grace, swiftly slicing one Dagger L in half before spearing another in the cockpit. Both dragon-like weapons flew forth again, each one biting a Dagger L with its fangs and crushing it.

Lunamaria instinctively moved forward to back up this mysterious newcomer, although it appeared that her help was not needed. The new mobile suit was on a roll, having cut down two more Dagger Ls with its emerald double-bladed beam trident in the span of mere seconds. It weaved through enemy counter fire with incredible maneuverability and looked less like a mobile suit and more like some ancient Chinese warrior.

"Hey!" Lunamaria shouted over the radio, "Who are you?"

A male voice replied, one that sounded both surprised and irritated. "A woman? I should've known…"

_That _hadn't been the response she'd been expecting. "Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

"Stay with the ship," the voice replied, "You'll just get in my way."

He may have just saved her life, but now this guy was really starting to tick her off. "That's bull! You'd better take that back!"

The rude pilot just ignored her and continued to rip his way through the pack of Dagger Ls. One mobile suit after another fell to the swirling emerald energy prongs of the double-bladed trident, while the twin dragon-like weapons flew forth and crushed any machine unfortunate enough to get caught in their fangs. The emerald mobile suit was carving a path of destruction towards the black machine with the beam scythe, and Lunamaria realized that the two units were probably on the same side.

She just wished she knew for sure if that side also included her side.

"Lunamaria," said Rey, "pull back! You're moving too far forward."

Checking her position, she realized that her friend was right. Still, she didn't feel right about backing down after what that other pilot had said to her.

"The enemy's caught up with those two new guys," she said, "We should move up!"

"No," said Rey, "Our orders are to defend the _Minerva_, Lunamaria. Whatever those two unknowns are doing doesn't change that. We have to follow our orders."

Lunamaria sighed. Rey was right, and she knew it, but she wished that he could show a little more independence and willingness to bend the rules.

"Fine," she said, "I'm pulling back."

As she did so she couldn't help but notice that the orders that her and Rey had been given seemed pretty pointless now. Just like she'd told her friend before, all of the Dagger Ls were now focused on fighting the black and green mobile suits… and doing a piss poor job of it.

_Damn_, she thought as she watched the show, _Where were these guys when the attack started? They're tearing it up out here!_

The twin-dragon machine and the mechanical Grim Reaper were utterly mauling the Dagger Ls. While both units were clearly designed for close-quarters-combat the lack of more distance-oriented weaponry did not seem to be a detriment to their performance. Both were fast and agile, and while the green mobile suit seemed to have an edge speed-wise the black machine was no slouch either. Between the broad scythe swings of the black mobile suit and the whirling double-bladed trident and flying dragon-heads of the green one the two of them were eviscerating the unidentified attacking squadrons.

The black machine brought its wicked beam scythe down in a vertical slice, cutting a Dagger L in half. Prongs from one side of the other unit's beam trident speared another mobile suit through the cockpit. A wide slash with the beam scythe cut down two more mobile suits, while an unleashed dragon-head crushed another and a whirling beam trident destroyed a fourth machine.

_Well_, she thought, _I guess they don't need our help. It's a bit annoying, though… who does that guy think he is?_

It was a weird sensation, being irritated at someone who had just saved her life. She hoped she'd get a chance to talk to whoever he was at the end of the fight; she had a few choice words for him about his attitude.

As she resumed her position alongside the _Minerva_ Lunamaria made sure to stay out of the way of the warship's heavy artillery. The enemy mobile suits may have had other things to worry about than attacking ZAFT's newest ship, but the battle group that had launched those machines was still approaching, and Lunamaria didn't want to get caught in the crossfire when the heavies started trading salvos. A _Nazca_-class destroyer and a _Laurasia_-class frigate had now joined up with the _Minerva_, but even with those reinforcements the outcome was still far from certain.

_We're not out of this yet_, she thought, _I just hope the Minerva's as tough as the top brass think she is…_

**End "When the Dragon Swims, Everything Ends"**

….

From the command chair of the Black Fleet _Agamemnon_-class carrier _Robert E. Lee_ Captain Jeb Stuart scowled as he watched the unfolding battle. The middle-aged commander of Force Alpha had been expecting his mobile suits to carve up ZAFT's new battleship while his group moved on to bombard Armory One. Instead his squadrons, every single pilot a veteran of the last war, were getting torn to shreds by two new model mobile suits that had seemingly dropped in from out of nowhere.

_Intel dropped the ball big time on this one_, he mentally fumed, _New machines beyond those officially being developed at this colony and a reborn Wing Zero? The Colonel had better make some heads roll for this fiasco…_

Of course, that thought assumed that Colonel Nazara would survive the encounter, and given his opponent that outcome was hardly guaranteed. The Nosferatu was one of the most advanced mobile suits in Phantom Pain's arsenal, and the Colonel was a highly skilled pilot, but he was now engaged in a duel with a living legend.

One that, if rumor was anything to go by, had actually defeated Nazara in the final battle of the last war.

The duel between the Nosferatu and the upgraded Wing Zero was fascinating, but Captain Stuart had more pressing matters to attend to. Since the mobile suit attack on the new battleship had been thwarted and the enemy vessel had since been joined by a destroyer and a frigate Force Alpha could no longer attempt to bypass their adversary and strike the colony directly. They would have to contend with the enemy warships, and the Captain wanted them out of the way immediately.

"Have the _Typhoons _split into groups of three and form a pincer," he ordered, "They'll hit the enemy group simultaneously with a torpedo spread. Our battleships and this vessel will maintain heading and commence bombardment of the new battleship once the torpedoes are away."

Watching the forward destroyers begin to divide into their two groups, Captain Stuart folded his arms and smiled. Soon he would crush the Coordinator defenses and clear the way to destroy Armory One. A success like that would land him a promotion for sure.

He was still imagining the new rank insignia when the bridge of the destroyer _Longstreet _was blown apart by two yellow beams.

His eyes widened in shock. "Where did that come from?"

"Two new contacts coming in from above, Captain!" shouted the sensor operator.

"Get them on screen!" Captain Stuart ordered.

The image on the main monitor shifted and showed the two new mobile suits coming in from on high. One had two gatling guns on the right arm and two beam cannons on the left and had a dark blue design, while the other had two large, curved blades and was covered in a tan cloak, though hints of light blue and white were visible. Even with their unique traits, though, the Captain could still make out some similarities between these two units and the mobile suits that were ripping apart Force Alpha's Dagger Ls. More disturbing was the fact that they all bore some hints of resemblance to Wing Zero.

_Mother of god_, he thought, _Don't tell me there's more from where that Demon came from…_

His previous orders were suddenly meaningless. If these two machines were anything like the ones mauling his Dagger Ls, let alone Wing Zero, then his priorities had just dramatically shifted.

"Recall all mobile suits at once!" he ordered, "All ships are to bring every gun available to bear on those units! Take them down no matter what the cost!"

_God help us_, he thought numbly, _It may already be too late…_

….

**Start "Searching for Peace's Buried Corpse"**

"Nice shot, Trowa," said Quatre.

Heavyarms Arsenal's opening salvo had been well placed. With its bridge destroyed the black destroyer at the far right edge of the enemy formation was falling away. The rest of the capital ships were frantically maneuvering to target the two Gundam pilots, but with their mobile suits tied up engaging Duo and Wufei Quatre knew that he and Trowa had the freedom to tear right into the vessels before them.

"Thanks," said Trowa, "I'm moving on to the next destroyer."

Quatre nodded. "I'll hit the larger ships to the rear. Be careful!"

The two Gundams split up, with Heavyarms Arsenal already zeroing in on another destroyer while Quatre dived towards one of the larger battleships. Thanks to the data Heero had sent by way of Duo he had already analyzed the bulky warship's firing arcs and knew exactly how to hit it.

Hitting his thrusters, Quatre swooped in along the battleship's upper deck. His first target was the battleship's forward turret, which he sliced clean through with his Heat Shotels. Flying right along the hull, an impossible target for the anti-air machine guns to track, Quatre repeated the process with the larger beam turret just in front of the bridge. Once again his Heat Shotels cut through the weapon like butter, and as it exploded Sandrock Saladin moved in on the bridge. Raising both weapons high, Quatre brought them down hard on the battleship's command center, cleaving two superheated gashes into it and ripping it apart.

_Sandrock wasn't originally designed as an anti-ship weapon_, he thought as he pulled back and the vessel began to drift, _It's a good thing I know how to improvise. Okay, next target!_

Moving in on the second battleship, Quatre decided to alter his attack vector and went for the bottom of the vessel. As he weaved through anti-air fire he saw Trowa pummel another black destroyer, ripping into the missile launchers mounted on the vessel's starboard side with his twin gatling guns and detonating them like firecrackers. Heavyarms Arsenal followed that up by raking the destroyer's upper decks, blasting the heavy beam turrets mounted their before blowing apart the bridge before moving on to the next ship in line.

Confident that Trowa had things in hand on his end, Quatre rushed in and sliced through the bottom turret of his targeted battleship. Moving from there towards the ship's rear, he brought his Heat Shotels up and carved into the vessel's large engines. A series of explosions ripped through the rear of the ship as Quatre pulled back before climbing until he was over the ship's upper deck. He then sliced into the rear beam turret before cutting into the bridge from behind.

"Quatre," said Trowa, "We're about to have company."

Checking his sensors, Quatre immediately saw what his fellow Gundam pilot was referring to. Some of the enemy mobile suits had managed to disengage from fighting Duo and Wufei and were heading back to help the warships. Quatre wasn't too worried about them, though; their numbers weren't sufficient enough to be a threat to him and Trowa, plus he knew that he could take down one more warship before they managed to get back here.

"Okay," he replied, "I'll hit the carrier back here and then move up to help you out!"

"Copy that," said Trowa as he bombarded his third destroyer with gatling and beam fire, along with several homing missiles.

Charging the carrier head on, Quatre weaved through the barrage of emerald beams and the streams of bullets from the ship's CIWS. Coming in mere meters over the upper hull, he carved first into the starboard beam turret and then the second one before moving up towards the bridge. Gunning his thruster, he brought his two Heat Shotels up and cleaved right through the carrier's command center.

"Carrier's out of the fight," said Quatre as he turned around, "Hang on, Trowa! I'm coming to back you up!"

**End "Searching for Peace's Buried Corpse"**

…

_Well_, thought Heero, _it's nice to see that they haven't lost their touch._

Even as he continued his duel with the violet mobile suit with the gunbarrels the Perfect Soldier was able to spare the occasional glance over at his fellow Gundam Pilots' part of the battlefield. What he'd seen had not disappointed him. His old friends had clearly maintained their skills, and their upgraded mobile suits were even deadlier now than they had been in their old campaigns.

He turned his attention back to his foe, who was once again charging at him with its three remaining gunbarrels released and ready. Heero moved to meet the attack head on, rapidly closing the distance and weaving through beam and linear gun fire before lashing out with his emerald blade. The two beam sabers met and sparks of energy flew, but even as the blades came together Heero knew that his foe was bringing the gunbarrels around to flank him. It was a move that the veteran pilot was more than ready for. Quickly breaking off, Heero lashed out with his beam saber and cut through the mobile suit's upper left gunbarrel pod, leaving only the bottom two gun-drones left to deal with.

_Fool_, Heero thought as he pulled away, blocking beam fire and linear rounds with his energy shields, _I've faced a foe with a similar setup before. In fact, since his had DRAGOONs it was actually harder to deal with since those are smaller and more maneuverable. Your gunbarrels are big, fat targets by comparison._

His foe was skilled, there was no denying that, but Heero knew that he was the one who had the upper hand in this fight. As he put some distance between himself and the other machine the Perfect Soldier raised the Twin Buster Rifle and cut loose. The enemy managed to evade the blast, but that was fine with Heero; it kept his adversary on the defensive as he once again rushed in to attack with his beam saber. Pouring power to his conventional thrusters and the Voiture Lumiere system, Heero rapidly closed the distance while evading another barrage of particle beams and linear gun slugs before once again crossing blades with his foe.

The beam sabers met in a clash of energy and light before Heero pulled back to avoid getting caught in a gunbarrel pincer. His foe opened up with the two remaining gunbarrels, its beam rifle, and linear guns, but Heero had already brought his two outer wings around and activated their energy shields. They were getting quite a workout today, and he made a mental note to congratulate Erica Simmons on the work she had done on them; they were performing excellently.

He decided to put a little more distance between himself and his foe in order to give himself a bit of room to observe the rapidly shifting battle. What he saw gave him mixed feelings.

His fellow Gundam pilots were continuing to rip into the force that had launched its surprise attack from the L4 debris field. Some of the Dagger Ls that Duo and Wufei had engaged earlier had managed to break off and rush to the aid of the three remaining _Typhoon_-class destroyers, but they were swiftly intercepted by Trowa and Quatre. The new Sandrock and Heavyarms were having little difficulty with the mobile suits, tearing them apart with gatling and beam fire from the latter and swinging Heat Shotels from the former.

At the same time Heero could see the new battleship _Minerva_, along with the destroyer _Neil deGrasse Tyson _and the frigate _Fermi_, finally open up with their big guns on the three remaining black warships. The _Minerva _led the barrage with her bow-mounted Tannhäuser Positron Blaster Cannon, and a tide of crimson energy plowed into the lead _Typhoon_-class destroyer and blew it apart. Meanwhile the _Tyson _and the _Fermi _were cutting loose with their main beam cannons, and their combined barrage ripped into another black destroyer and tore it in half. The final destroyer was already turning tail, but it didn't get far; fire from the _Minerva_'s Tristan beam cannons and Isolde Triple Cannon hammered its engines, and the vessel was consumed by a series of explosions.

_That stealth battleship will be retreating now_, he thought, _and unless we capture it we'll have no way to definitively prove who was behind this attack._

Said battleship was already moving to withdraw. The ZAFT warships that had moved to engage it earlier were all either destroyed or crippled, and the few GuAIZ Rs and ZAKUs that tried to disable its engines were beat back by the four Dagger Ls the warship had launched earlier. The stolen Gaia was nowhere to be seen; it had already been retrieved by the unidentified battleship. Meanwhile the other unknown mobile suit, the one with the beam katana, was still engaged with the Impulse, and while an amateur observer might think that the duel between the two machines was even Heero's expert eyes could tell that the unknown unit actually had the upper hand.

Deciding that he had seen enough, Heero gunned Wing Zero Albion's engines and rushed toward his foe, working his way through a hail of energy beams and linear gun rounds as he went. It was time to end this duel.

….

Colonel Nazara snarled as he once again crossed beam sabers with the upgraded Wing Zero. No matter what attack he tried he just could not make any headway in this duel, and in fact he was actually on the defensive. Nosferatu had been reduced to two gunbarrels, and while it still had the rest of its weapons the Colonel already knew that this would not be enough to defeat his foe. Even in his fury he retained enough sense to realize that further engagement, both in this duel and in the larger battle, would not be productive.

_It can't be helped_, he thought as he used his gunbarrels to force his enemy to pull back, _It's time to retreat._

However, just because a retreat was necessary did not mean it would be easy. The ongoing duel had given Nazara a good taste of Wing Zero's upgrades, and among them apparently was a considerable boost in speed. Nosferatu was among the fastest mobile suits in Phantom Pain's arsenal, but the Colonel knew that it could not outrun his current adversary. A diversion would be in order to cover his retreat, and fortunately Nazara knew just where to find one.

He got on the radio and contacted the leader of the _Girty Lue_'s four Dagger Ls. "Lieutenant Pulaski, bring your squad over here at once. You and your men are to keep Wing Zero at bay while our force withdraws!"

Even a fool would realize that those orders were a death sentence in all but name, but Nazara knew that the Lieutenant was a model Alliance officer who would not question the commands given to him by a superior officer.

Sure enough, mere seconds later came Pulaski's dutiful reply. "Understood, Colonel. We're inbound. We'll be there soon."

_Excellent_, thought the Colonel as he opened fire on Wing Zero with every weapon that still worked, only for the mobile suit to either deflect or evade every shot, _That just leaves one more matter to attend to…._

He briefly turned his gaze towards another duel that was unfolding not too far away. Despite his personal distaste for the mercenary he knew that he would need Jetstream Sam's help in any future engagements with these new foes. Like it or not he could not expend him in a rearguard action; he needed the Ronin to pull out with him.

"Minuano," he said, "disengage. We're withdrawing."

….

Shinn Asuka was in trouble.

Impulse remained undamaged as it continued its contest with the mechanical samurai, but its foe was also unharmed. Despite the talent that his instructors at the academy had heaped so much praise on Shinn was unable to land a single blow on his opponent. Neither beam saber or beam rifle could connect, and this was despite the fact that his enemy did not have a shield like he did.

Once again beam saber and katana crossed, and once again Shinn was unable to break through his foe's guard. He tried to pull back and fired a volley from his rifle, but the enemy was able to evade the shots and rapidly closed the distance with him. The enemy raised its sword and brought it down in a hard vertical chop, and Shinn was barely able to block the blow.

His enemy's voice came over the radio, as infuriatingly cocky and relaxed as ever. "Your technique lacks something, and it's not just experience."

"Shut up!" Shinn snarled as he attempted to counter with a thrust only for the enemy to dodge it.

His foe chuckled as he lashed out with a slash, keeping Shinn on the defensive. "Come now, you sound more like a petulant child than a soldier. Are you going to fight or throw a tantrum?"

"I said shut up!" Shinn shouted as he lashed out with his violet blade.

Unfortunately he'd made his strike rashly and his foe made him pay for it. Even as Shinn was making his attack the black and red mobile suit made one of its own; a swift and precise slash that cut right through Impulse's sword arm.

"Shit!" Shinn cried, pulling back and firing away with his beam rifle.

It was to no avail. The enemy pressed the assault, dodging the particle beams like they were tennis balls before launching a down-up slash. Shinn was able to avoid taking the full impact, but the violet energy edge of the katana grazed the Impulse's torso before slicing out the left sensor eye.

"This is what happens when you bring a temper tantrum to a sword fight!" his foe taunted, "If talent and anger are all you have then you'll never be a match for me."

"Fuck off!" Shinn yelled as he fired again with his rifle.

Once again his foe evaded the shots and came in for another strike. With another slash from its beam katana it cut right through Impulse's rifle, and the weapon detonated in the mobile suit's hand.

Shinn reflexively opened fire with his CIWS, and for once his shots found their mark, but the effort was pointless; with his foe being protected by Phase Shift Armor the bullets may as well have been spitballs. Impulse was wide open for attack, and the enemy wouldn't get a cleaner shot than this.

Yet to Shinn's amazement his foe did not move in for the killing strike. Instead he saw the mobile suit turn towards the withdrawing Bogey One.

His foe chuckled. "Heh, lucky devil. Sayonara!"

With that the black and red mobile suit gunned its engines, retreating towards Bogey One and rapidly leaving the crippled Impulse in the dust.

"Damn it," Shinn hissed before slamming his fists against the controls, "Damn it! He beat me and quit!"

….

"Captain, Impulse is badly damaged!" cried Meyrin, "Shinn needs to return to the ship at once!"

Talia nodded; she had just witnessed the Impulse's defeat on her monitor and was surprised that the enemy had not finished it off.

"Get him back here," she ordered, "Have the crews ready to commence immediate repairs!"

_The best of our prototype units_, she thought grimly, _and one of our most promising new pilots… beaten so easily._

She was glad that Shinn was still alive and the Impulse was at least in a repairable state, but his loss in the duel with the black and red machine felt like just the latest slap in the face ZAFT had received since the start of this battle. Three intruders stealing advanced prototypes and running amok inside Armory One, Bogey One decloaking and annihilating one of the new _Hel_-class cruisers before proceeding to maul the rest of the colony's patrol screen, an entire battle group somehow infiltrating the L4 debris field and then launching a flank attack on ZAFT's local forces, the revival of Wing Zero before it subsequently made mincemeat out of two of the stolen units, the arrival of four new machines that had proceeded to seemingly effortlessly stop the force engaging the _Minerva _in its tracks where the ship and her mobile suits had been in a fight for their lives…

It was just one embarrassment and fiasco after another in this battle.

The four unique, new mobile suits that had intervened against the surprise battle group and saved the _Minerva _were in the process of mopping up the last of the Dagger Ls. Shinn's foe was retreating towards Bogey One, which was also in the process of pulling away from the battlefield. Talia could see Wing Zero still engaged with the violet machine from before, and the Dagger Ls that had been defending Bogey One were now rushing over to join the fight.

_The mobile suit opposing Wing Zero must be piloted by an important officer_, she thought, _Those four machines must be trying to provide cover for their superior while they retreat._

"Are any of the Dagger Ls from the L4 force coming towards us?" she asked.

"Negative," replied the sensor officer, "It looks like those four new machines are almost done with them."

"Where did those things come from?" asked Arthur, "Chairman Durandal, are you sure that they are not ours?"

Looking behind her, Talia saw Durandal nod. "I can assure you that if there were new ZAFT mobile suits beyond those being developed at Armory One operating in this area you would've been informed. The origins of those four machines are as big a mystery to me as to the rest of you."

Talia had mixed feelings about that. On the one hand it was nice to know that the Chairman wasn't holding out on them, but that just raised further questions about where those four strange mobile suits had come from and what the intentions of their pilots were.

_It's like Wing Zero in the last war all over again_, she thought with a shudder, _Heaven help us if those four machines are from whatever program that spawned _that _thing…_

"Helm," she said, "Take us towards the Impulse. As soon as it's aboard alter course to pursue Bogey One. No matter what happens we cannot let it escape! Lunamaria and Rey will go with us and continue to act as escorts. Signal the _Tyson _and _Fermi_; they are to remain with the colony and be on the lookout for any other attackers!"

"Captain," said Arthur, "What about those four new models?"

"Are they moving to engage us?" she asked.

"No, Captain," her XO replied, "They're still mopping up the last of the Dagger Ls."

"Then we'll leave them to that," said Talia, "Let's move it, people! This battle isn't over yet!"

….

Weaving through a fresh barrage of particle beams and linear gun rounds from his foe, Heero brought up the Twin Buster Rifle and swiftly retaliated. The blast of golden-yellow hellfire tore across space, and while it failed to eliminate his foe the edge of the wave of energy did catch the lower right gunbarrel and destroy it. Now the unit only had one of the devices left and would be much easier to contend with.

_You're good_, he thought as he rapidly closed the distance and lashed out with his beam saber, _but you're no Cipher._

The larger battle seemed to be winding down, but Heero couldn't pay it much heed at the moment. His enemy was damaged, but it wasn't defeated just yet.

As he crossed energy blades with his foe once again Heero couldn't help but feel like he should know this foe. While the mobile suit itself was a new model there was something faintly familiar in the way its pilot fought. The Gundam pilot couldn't place what that was and decided that for now it was just a distraction; he could worry about it after the enemy was defeated.

While pulling back and evading another volley of energy beams and linear slugs an alarm went off from Heero's sensors. Checking the display, he saw the four Dagger Ls that had been defending the unidentified battleship rapidly closing in on his position.

_Two standard Dagger Ls and two with Doppelhorn packs_, he thought, _They must be coming to bail this guy out._

The newcomers would be in firing range soon. Heero would have to wrap this up quickly.

Heero opened fire again with his rifle. The shot didn't connect but it did force his foe to dive and stay on the defensive. Heero hit his thrusters and rocketed forward. Swiftly closing the gap he made a horizontal slash at his foe. The enemy blocked the attack, but with only one gunbarrel drone to worry about now it was much easier for Heero to follow up that strike with another. His foe managed to deflect this blow as well before opening fire with the gunbarrel drone, but Heero had already moved away and was able to evade the shots from the weapon.

The Gundam pilot prepared to evade another barrage from his enemy's remaining weapons, but to his surprise his foe simply sent the sole gunbarrel drone charging right at him. At the same time Heero detected an energy spike within the device, and he immediately brought Wing Zero Albion's outer wing around and activated their shields. The move hadn't come a moment too soon; when the gunbarrel got into close proximity it actually detonated.

_A self-destruct mechanism in the weapon_, he thought, _Now that's a new trick._

The blast hadn't penetrated the shields, but it had bought his foe some breathing room. Heero was about to retake the offensive when he was forced to go evasive to dodge beam fire and recoilless cannon fire; the four Dagger Ls had entered the fray. Meanwhile the mobile suit Heero had been fighting was moving as fast as it could towards the unknown battleship. Ahead of it was the black and red machine that had been fighting the Impulse, and with a quick glance at his sensors Heero found the damaged ZAFT prototype limping back to the _Minerva_. It looked to be completely disarmed of its main weapons, and the Gundam pilot wondered why the attacker hadn't finished it off.

As he continued to dodge fire from the four Dagger Ls, Duo appeared on his monitor. "Yo, buddy! We're almost done over here! What do you want us to do after we wrap things up with the small fry?"

Glancing over their way Heero could see his old friends annihilating what was left of the force that had emerged from the L4 debris field. Deathscythe Omega sliced a Dagger L in half with its wicked beam scythe. Altron speared another machine through the cockpit with its beam trident. Sandrock ripped a third unit apart with its Heat Shotels while Heavyarms shredded a fourth machine with gatling fire.

"When you're done there go attack the retreating battleship," he said, "Disable its engines; we need it intact so we can get information."

"You got it!" Duo replied.

Leaving his old friends to finish up their fight, Heero turned his focus back to the four Dagger Ls attacking him. He'd spend enough time dodging fire; it was time to return it in kind. Sighting in on one of the standard Dagger Ls, Heero cut loose with Wing Zero Albion's machine cannons. The barrage of shells ripped apart the black mobile suit, but there were still three more units to contend with.

The two Doppelhorn Daggers kept their distance and unleashed a bombardment of shells while the other Dagger L attempted to use their support fire to cover its attempt to take him out up close. Heero responded simply by climbing above all three units before opening up with his rifle. The blast of energy obliterated one of the Doppelhorn Daggers. Weaving through fire from the remaining two mobile suits, Heero took Wing Zero Albion into a dive. Approaching the standard Dagger L at lightning speed, the Gundam pilot cut the machine in half.

The final Dagger L pulled back, firing its cannons as it went. For Heero it was all too easy to evade its fire before returning in kind with his two railguns. A single salvo was enough to destroy the mobile suit.

_That takes care of the small fry_, he thought, _Time for the big one._

….

Having just landed inside the _Girty Lue_'s hangar, Nazara immediately radioed the bridge.

"Status report."

"We're outbound," Captain Lee replied, "but I'm afraid our Dagger Ls didn't buy as much time as we'd hoped for."

"Send me a visual," said Nazara.

Studying the Nosferatu's display as the bridge transmitted the data to him, the Colonel saw that both Wing Zero and the four new machines had completely wiped out the last of the group's Dagger Ls and were all heading for the _Girty Lue_. ZAFT's new battleship was also in pursuit, but Nazara considered that a secondary threat when compared to the five mobile suits that had just utterly wrecked his force.

"We'll have to cut this closer than we'd originally planned," he said, "Are the external fuel tanks ready for detachment?"

"Yes, Colonel," Captain Lee replied.

Nazara nodded. "Good. Detonate them ten seconds after detachment and activate the Mirage Colloid."

"Colonel," the Captain replied cautiously, "detonation at that proximity is short of the minimum safe distance. The shock wave…"

"I know the risks," Nazara cut in, "and I consider them less than the risk of Wing Zero getting us in its sights. Follow your orders, Captain."

"Understood, sir," came the Captain's grim response, "You'd better brace yourself."

….

"So, Heero," said Duo, "How do you want to play this?"

His old friend's upgraded Wing Zero was still a ways out in front of Deathscythe Omega and the other three Gundams, but they were making process. Duo and the others had already passed up the _Minerva _and were following Heero as he pursued the fleeing battleship. It would only be a matter of seconds until they caught up with him and the warship.

The Perfect Soldier appeared on his screen. "I'll start by hitting the starboard engines. Trowa can take the portside ones when he catches up. The rest of you focus on taking out the ship's heavy weapons. Once it's disarmed and immobile I'll blast us a path inside through the forward mobile suit catapults."

Duo grinned. "Sounds like a plan to me. You guys get all that?"

"Affirmative," said Trowa.

"We're almost there!" cried Quatre.

"Ready when you are," said Wufei.

His eyes focused on the target up ahead, Duo pushed Deathscythe Omega's engines as hard as they could go, and he knew his friends were doing the same with their Gundams. The unidentified blue battleship grew steadily larger on his monitor, and he could see Heero already setting up for his attack run.

Suddenly he saw Wing Zero stop in its tracks and rapidly begin to pull back. "Get back! They're dropping their external fuel tanks!"

Duo's eyes narrowed as he saw two bulbous components detach from the sides of the ship. He immediately brought his machine to a halt and slammed on the reverse thrusters. "Shit! Haul ass, guys!"

All five Gundams flew away from the battleship and the two floating tanks as fast as they could. Duo braced himself for the inevitable detonation, which came mere seconds later.

A massive blast of fire lit up space around them. Deathscythe Omega was buffeted by a heavy shockwave, but the Gundam remained intact. The explosion was so bright that it almost shorted out the mobile suit's visual sensors.

"Damn," Duo growled as he struggled to find the ship through the chaos.

The blast quickly began to fade, but there was no sign of the warship. It must have activated its cloaking device during the explosion.

"You guys see anything?" he asked.

"Nothing," Heero replied, "So much for getting information out of them."

"They can't have gotten far," said Quatre, "Heero, does their trajectory before the blast mean anything to you?"

A moment later Heero responded. "That's towards the orbital Debris Belt. It's as good a place as any to hide out for a while after an attack like this, although since they're using Mirage Colloid we have no way of knowing if they'll keep to that course or alter their trajectory."

"So we really have lost them, then," said Trowa.

"What's our next move?" asked Wufei, "That other battleship's coming up on us pretty fast."

Wufei was right; the _Minerva _would be right on top of them real soon. While Duo assumed the fact that the battleship hadn't backstabbed him after he had saved it meant that he and the others had earned some goodwill, there was no way to know just how long it was good for.

"Heero," he said, "it's your call. What's our move?"

There was a moment of silence before Heero answered. "Hold tight. I've got an idea."

….

Meyrin breathed a sigh of relief when the blast faded and Bogey One was nowhere to be seen. It wasn't that she was glad the enemy had escaped. Of course she wanted to help capture or destroy whoever had attacked Armory One. However, after all that had happened in that battle, she was more than ready for a break in the action.

Glancing behind her, it was hard to tell what the Captain's thoughts were. She looked conflicted to say the least. If Meyrin had to guess, she'd put it around fifty-fifty; half relief, half frustration.

It wasn't hard to see why. Yes, the battle was over for now, and the enemy had been driven off, but that did not change the fact that the whole engagement had been a complete disaster. The theft of the three prototypes from Armory One was an utter fiasco for ZAFT, one that was compounded by the casualties suffered by both the interior forces and the patrol screen. Yes, the Abyss and Chaos had been destroyed and denied to the enemy, but the cause of their destruction was cause for further alarm.

_I can't believe it's back_, she thought, _Wing Zero… and from the look of things it's more powerful than ever._

She'd been too young to serve in the last war, as had her sister, but when both of them had enrolled in the academy after the conflict their instructors had made sure that they'd gotten a crash course on the mobile suit that had challenged the might of not only ZAFT but the Earth Alliance as well… and had _won_. Its supposed destruction had been a great source of relief for the militaries of both powers, but now it was quite clear that their relief had been misplaced. Meyrin could not begin to fathom _how _it had resurfaced, but that did not change the fact that it _was _here.

Wing Zero's revival was shock enough, but the arrival of the four new, unknown mobile suits that had stopped the attacking force from the L4 debris field in its track had been quite another surprise. Meyrin could not stop thinking about the black machine that had saved the _Minerva _from the Dagger L, along with its pilot. The mobile suit had looked like something straight out of a nightmare, and along with the other three machines it had slaughtered its way through the attackers' ranks like a wolf among sheep. It was clear that the power of those mobile suits were matched by that of their pilots, and there was no doubt in Meyrin's mind that they had to be combat veterans.

Their intervention had saved the _Minerva _and Armory One, but even then there had still been further embarrassments and casualties to come. The mobile suits from the destroyer and frigate that had come to help the _Minerva _had been destroyed, while the Impulse had been badly damaged in a duel with an unknown unit. Shinn had survived and had made it back to the ship, and Impulse's modular design made it easier to fix, but its defeat was still hard to swallow. Now, just to cap everything else off, Bogey One had escaped, and beyond its last known trajectory they had no way of tracking the ship.

Meyrin was so caught up in her thoughts that she was taken completely by surprise by a light that had appeared on her console. There was an incoming transmission, and her eyes widened in shock when she saw the source.

_You've got to be kidding me…_

The console did not lie, despite her disbelief, and Meyrin turned to give Captain Gladys the news.

"Captain!" she cried, "Wing Zero's hailing us!"

The Captain and everyone else on the bridge looked just as surprised as Meyrin felt. "Are you serious?"

Meyrin nodded. "Yes, with audio and visual feed. Should I put it through?"

She saw the Captain turn to the Chairman, who leaned forward in his chair. "Interesting… Well, Talia, we shouldn't keep him waiting."

Meyrin saw the Captain nod and turn to her. "Meyrin, get him on screen."

"Aye, Captain," she replied, hoping she didn't sound as nervous as she felt.

Hitting a button on her console, Meyrin then looked up at the main monitor. The figure that appeared was clad in a black flight suit and had his helmet on, but through the visor Meyrin could see the face of the pilot that had become as famous as his mobile suit had. It was a face that had been plastered across every screen in the PLANTs after the brazen raid on Aprilius One and the Fall of Avalon.

"Heero Yuy…" she whispered in awe, hoping that no one else had heard her.

Then his voice came over the bridge speakers, as calm and strong as it had been on the recording of the Charon Prison break two years ago.

"This is Heero Yuy to the battleship _Minerva_. Battleship _Minerva_, do you read me?"

Looking back at the Captain, Meyrin saw her nod. She looked calm, but Meyrin could also see the tension in her.

_That's right_, she thought, _the Captain fought in the last war. Did she ever have to face Wing Zero?_

"This is Captain Talia Gladys of the battleship _Minerva_," the Captain replied, "We read you loud and clear… Heero Yuy."

The legendary pilot nodded on the screen. "What's your status?"

"We're intact and our damage is minor," said the Captain, "Have… have you sustained any damage?"

_Bet she never thought she'd be asking the pilot of Wing Zero that_, Meyrin mused.

Heero shook his head. "None."

Captain Gladys nodded. "I see. I suppose we owe you our thanks. I presume those other four machines are with you?"

Heero nodded. "They are. Captain Gladys, I have a proposition for you… one that would best be discussed in person."

Meyrin's eyes widened, along with those of everyone else on the bridge. Did the legendary Heero Yuy seriously intend to come aboard ZAFT's newest battleship?

The Captain turned to the Chairman. Meyrin saw him nod and get out of his chair, moving forward into the view of the bridge camera.

"Heero Yuy," he said, "I am PLANT Supreme Council Chairman Gilbert Durandal. You and your allies are welcome to come aboard the _Minerva_. Talia and I will meet you down in the hangar."

Meyrin saw the pilot nod on the screen. "Understood. Once our Gundams are securely berthed I recommend you advise your crews to keep their distance. Any attempts to examine them will result in their self-detonation, and I can assure you that they will take the entire ship with them. Is that understood?"

Meyrin gulped nervously; the tension on the bridge had definitely ratcheted up a notch with that statement.

She was surprised to see the Chairman chuckle. "I suppose I should've expected as much. Very well, Heero Yuy. We'll keep our distance from your… Gundams."

"Appreciated," said Heero, "We'll wait on your clearance to enter. Gundam Albion, out."

Meyrin raised an eyebrow. _Gundam Albion? Doesn't he mean Wing Zero?_

She wasn't the only one taken aback by that statement; both the Captain and the Chairman traded a puzzled look. In the meantime Heero had disappeared from the screen, and all eyes turned to the Captain.

Eventually Captain Gladys turned to Meyrin. "Have Lunamaria and Rey return to the ship. Once they're inside I want you to begin directing Heero Yuy and the other four pilots to enter the ship."

Meyrin nodded. "Understood, Captain."

"Captain, are you sure about this?" asked Arthur, "This is _Heero Yuy _we're talking about here! The amount of carnage he wrought against our forces in the last war…"

"He fought against the Earth Alliance as well," the Captain interjected, "and he did not fight against us here today. The Chairman believes that he is worth meeting with, and I agree. Arthur, mind the bridge while we're down there. Keep us on course following Bogey One's last known trajectory for now, and direct all of Armory One's remaining forces to stay with the colony. If there are any signs of the enemy I want to be alerted at once."

Arthur nodded. "Understood, Captain."

Meyrin saw her turn to the Chairman. "I know protocol dictates that I get you to safety as soon as possible, mister Chairman, along with the civilian reporter, but I must at least try to pursue this enemy. We may yet have a chance to find them."

Chairman Durandal nodded and smiled. "It's quite all right, Talia. If it makes you feel any better, know that I agree with you assessment. I know we have a few small patrols out along that trajectory; they could help with our efforts."

The Captain nodded. "Arthur, pass along all data we gained from this battle to the outlying patrols. Let them know to contact us the moment they find a sign of the enemy!"

"Yes, ma'am!" her XO replied.

The Chairman turned to the reporter at the back of the bridge. "Care to join us, Miss Peterson? It's not every day the press gets to meet the world's most famous pilot, after all."

Meyrin had completely forgotten about the reporter that had come aboard with the Chairman earlier; she'd been silent throughout the battle.

She saw Marilyn Peterson nod and smile. "Thank you, mister Chairman. I promise I'll stay out of the way."

"I appreciate that," said the Chairman before turning to the Captain, "Shall we?"

The Captain nodded. "Arthur, the bridge is yours. We're heading down."

Arthur nodded and saluted her. "Aye, Captain!"

As the Captain, Chairman, and journalist left the bridge Arthur turned to Meyrin. "You heard the Captain. Get Lunamaria and Rey back inside, and then direct those other five machines to dock!"

Meyrin nodded and got to work. As she carried out her orders an odd thought crept into her head.

_Luna's going to freak when she sees who's coming into the hangar after her and Rey…_

….

Colonel Nazara allowed himself a small smile as he powered down the Nosferatu. The all clear signal had been given from the bridge; the Mirage Colloid was active and they were outbound. ZAFT's new battleship was moving along their general trajectory, but with the _Girty Lue _now cloaked it would be easy to shake them off. The vessel had been considerably rattled by the exploding external fuel tanks, but she was holding together and the tremors had subsided.

_A clean escape_, he thought, his smile fading,_ and that's about the only thing that went right in this operation. The Gaia and the destruction we wrought upon the local ZAFT forces are small consolation compared to what we suffered today. Abyss, Chaos, the entirety of Force Alpha… Djibril will be furious when he gets the report. All the more so when he learns who showed up in the middle of the fight…_

He shook his head. The report would need to be dealt with eventually, but not right away. Nazara could at least evaluate the Gaia and go over the data gathered by their surviving forces before compiling the report.

As he exited the Nosferatu he saw three of the ship's medics standing in front of the Gaia, along with a few security personnel. The unit's hatch was still closed, its Variable Phase Shift Armor was powered down, and Stella was nowhere to be seen.

He floated over towards the captured prototype and the small crowd around it. "What's going on here?"

One of the doctors turned to him. "Sir, we can't get her to exit the mobile suit. She's completely refused to leave it ever since she returned to the ship!"

_I should've known this would happen_, he thought, _Losing Auel and Sting would've done a number on her, and she's fragile enough as it is. In this state there's no way the doctors will be able to reach her, even if they use her block word. Looks like I'll have to handle this myself._

"Stand down," he said, "and move back."

"Sir?" said another one of the doctors.

"I'll handle this," said the Colonel, "Just shut up and stay out of my way."

He moved closer to the Gaia and rapped his hand on the cockpit hatch. "Stella? It's Nazara. Can you hear me?"

In between a few sobs he heard her voice. "Colonel…"

"That's right," he said, his voice uncharacteristically gentle, "It's me."

"Colonel…" she said, "Auel and Sting… they're… they're gone!"

Nazara nodded. "Yes, they are."

"_No!_" she shrieked, "They _can't _be gone! They're… they're…"

"You saw it yourself, Stella," he replied coldly, "You know as well as I do what happened to them. That monster took them from us."

"Monster…" she said numbly, "A monster…"

_She's regressed further than I'd anticipated_, he thought with annoyance, _Such a bother…_

"A demon from the last war," said Nazara, "It _killed _them, Stella. Auel and Sting are _dead_."

There was a pause before she responded, and her voice was very shaky. "They're…de…de...de…"

Nazara sighed. He would have to take the jackhammer approach. Using her block word multiple times in close succession wasn't necessarily good for her overall mental stability, but sometimes it was the only thing that could snap her out of something like this.

"Yes, Stella," he said, his voice becoming a menacing growl, "They are _dead_, Stella. _Dead _like your parents. _Dead _like Michael, _dead _like Sarah, _dead _like Austin, and like so many more of your old 'comrades'. They are _dead_, Stella… and _we _are still _alive_."

_'Comrades' is a bit of a stretch_, he mused, _After all, they weren't exactly given a choice when they were inducted into the Extended program, and we set them at each other's throats quite frequently…_

Bringing up the names of other victims of the program wasn't necessarily the preferred way to handle a situation like this, especially after all the work that had been done to alter Stella's memories. However, Nazara knew that when combined with a barrage of the girl's block word they could have the desired effect.

It took a moment, but eventually Stella responded, and Nazara was pleased to hear that she sounded a little more focused now. "Yes… they're dead. We're still here… we survived."

Nazara smiled. "Yes, that's right. Now, why don't you come on out of there, Stella?"

"Yes… sir," she replied, her voice shaky but not nearly as bad as it had been earlier.

The cockpit opened and Stella exited the mobile suit. There was red around her eyes, and it was clear that she had been crying. Her dress was wrinkled and it had a few small tears in it from her fingernails ripping through the fabric from gripping it so tightly. Nazara motioned for her to come over to him.

He brought his hand up to her cheek. "There, you see. Was that so hard?"

"Colonel…" she said, her voice wavering.

"I know how you're feeling, Stella," he said, "Sting and Auel were your friends, and you miss them. It must hurt so much."

Stella nodded. "It does… I want them back."

Nazara shook his head. "We can't bring them back, Stella. However, I can help take away the pain you're feeling. I can make you feel better."

Her eyes widened. "How?"

The Colonel had to resist smirking. Her question was proof that she didn't remember the last time he'd made her 'feel better'… or the time before that, or the one before that….

_Those drugs really are a wonderful thing…_

He leaned in to whisper in her ear while running his hand through her hair, enjoying the smell that he would soon get a lot more of. "Come with me to my room, dear, and I'll show you."

Pulling back he saw her face redden slightly. Her mind may not have remembered what she was talking about, but her body did. "In… in your room?"

This time he could not keep his smile from taking on a lecherous air. "Yes, Stella. Don't worry; I promise it will be _very _good."

She nodded, giving him the childlike smile that he'd been hoping for. "Okay."

He motioned for her to head towards the hangar exit. "Wait for me in the hallway, Stella. I'll catch up soon."

"All right," she said, still smiling as she moved off.

When she was out of earshot he turned to the doctors present. "I presume you have some of her sedatives with you."

The lead physician nodded and produced a handful of hypodermic injectors. "When you're…finished with her, one of these to her neck should suffice."

"Thank you, doctor," he said, "I'll give you a call when it's over."

"I'm assuming we're going to erase Auel and Sting from her mind this time?" asked the physician.

Nazara nodded. "Yes. Keep Wing Zero in there, though. A powerful monster like that will give her more motivation to fight. Also, though this should go without saying, erase any memory she might have of our coming… _encounter_."

If the doctor had any opinions on that imminent 'encounter', he kept them to himself. "Understood, Colonel."

….

Removing her helmet, Lunamaria breathed a sigh of relief and wiped away the sweat that had matted her bangs to her forehead. Her crimson ZAKU Warrior was now safely settled down in its berth inside the _Minerva_'s hangar; her first battle was over.

_My first battle_, she thought, still having trouble coming to terms with it, _I fought… I killed… I don't know what I was expecting, but I didn't think it'd be like that…_

She saw Rey's white ZAKU Phantom settle in next to her machine, the Blaze pack having been removed upon the mobile suit's entry to the hangar. That was one friend accounted for, and now she had to check in on the other.

"Hey, Meyrin," she said, "Is Shinn okay?"

Her younger sister appeared on her screen. "He's fine, Luna. Impulse is pretty beat up, though."

Lunamaria nodded. "I saw that. I hope the techs can fix it up soon. Who knows when we'll have to fight again, right?"

"Yeah," Meyrin replied, her voice shaky, "Sis, are you okay? That was a close call out there."

Lunamaria smiled. "I'm fine, Meyrin… although if I get to meet my rescuer again I may need to give him a piece of my mind. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he saved my life, but he was kind of a jerk."

Meyrin returned the smile. "Well, you'll probably get that chance sooner than you'd think."

Now Lunamaria was confused. "What do you mean?"

"I mean we're about to have some guests," said Meyrin, "They should be entering the hangar any second now."

Her eyes widened as she looked towards the hangar entrances. _You've got to be kidding me…_

Sure enough, more mobile suits were now entering the hangar.

More specifically, the upgraded Wing Zero and the unit that had saved Lunamaria's life.

"Meyrin," she said, trying and failing to keep the shock from her voice, "What's going on?"

"Heero Yuy said he had a proposition for us," Meyrin replied, "The Captain gave permission for the Albion and the other four Gundams to board."

Lunamaria raised an eyebrow. "Albion? Gundams? Meyrin, what are you talking about?"

Meyrin shook her head. "Honestly, I'm pretty confused myself. The Captain and the Chairman should be coming into the hangar once it's sealed and the atmosphere's vented back in, though. Maybe you can ask them?"

Lunamaria nodded numbly as she watched the two mobile suits head towards berths while more machines entered the hangar. "I'll try…"

"I've gotta go," said Meyrin, "One more machine to direct. Later, sis!"

All Lunamaria could do was sit back and watch as the five mobile suits that had completely upended today's battlefield came inside the _Minerva _and took up berths. As if today couldn't have gotten any more bizarre, now they were apparently playing host to the Demon Lord of Avalon and four completely unknown pilots and mobile suits.

"Rey," she said, "are you seeing this?"

"Yes," he replied.

"Any idea what the hell's going on?" she asked him.

"We'll find out soon enough," said Rey.

Figuring that was the best she would get out of him, Lunamaria simply folded her arms and waited until the hangar was sealed again and the oxygen indicators flipped to green. Once that happened she powered down her machine and hit the cockpit release.

As she left her ZAKU she saw the ship's mechanics milling around, all looking at the five new machines and keeping a respectful distance. Scanning the crowd, she saw Shinn coming up to join them and she decided to meet him halfway.

"Shinn!" she cried, "Are you doing okay?"

Her friend nodded, though he looked bitter. "I'm fine, Luna. I just wish I'd been able to beat that guy!"

Lunamaria smiled. "Well, you're still alive, right? You'll kick his ass next time!"

"Learn from this experience, Shinn," said Rey, "You can then use it against your enemy if you meet him again."

Shinn nodded, and Lunamaria was pleased to see him crack a smile. "You're right. Thanks."

"Anytime," Lunamaria replied before gesturing to the crowd that was watching the five new mobile suits, "So, you guys want to head over there and try to get some answers?"

"Sounds good," said Rey.

"You mean you guys don't know what this is about?" asked Shinn.

Lunamaria shook her head. "Not a clue. Meyrin just said that Heero Yuy wanted to meet the Captain and the Chairman."

"And they accepted?" said Shinn, his eyes widening, "He was our enemy in the last war! Wing Zero was supposed to be destroyed, remember? It was required by the treaty!"

Lunamaria sighed. "I know all that, Shinn. We've got to trust the Captain."

"I agree," said Rey, "The Captain and the Chairman would not have allowed this without a good reason. Let's go find out what it is."

Shinn sighed. "Fine."

At the back of the hangar Lunamaria saw three people enter. Two were the Captain and the Chairman, while the third was a brown-haired civilian woman that Lunamaria didn't recognize, though she looked like a member of the press corps.

Shinn saw them too, and point over at them. "Come on. Let's go get some answers."

Lunamaria and Rey both nodded and followed his lead. Floating through the hangar the three ZAFT Reds intercepted the Chairman and his retinue before saluting.

"Captain! Chairman!" they said in unison.

"At ease, you three," Captain Gladys replied.

"Captain, Chairman," said Shinn, "Why are you doing this? Why are we meeting with them?"

"With all due respect," said Lunamaria carefully, "Heero Yuy fought against ZAFT in the last war, and we have no idea who those other four pilots are."

Captain Gladys nodded. "I understand your concerns. However, the situation is not that simple. Past enmity aside, I do not doubt that we would not have survived today's battle were it not for Heero Yuy and his friends' intervention. The Chairman and I agreed that meeting them like this would be in our best interests."

"Is that right, Chairman Durandal?" asked Rey.

The Chairman nodded and smiled. "I believe we could all learn a great deal from this encounter. While I appreciate your concerns, I must ask that you leave the talking to Talia and myself. Is that understood?"

The three of them nodded. "Yes, Chairman."

"If you don't mind me asking," said Lunamaria, pointing to the brown-haired woman, "Who is she?"

The young woman smiled. "My name's Marilyn Peterson. I was part of the press corps for today's launching ceremony, but I was separated from the others during the attack. The Chairman was kind enough to bring me on board for my own safety, and he invited me to witness whatever happens down here."

The reporter held out her hand. "It's nice to meet you."

Lunamaria smiled and shook it. "Lunamaria Hawke, ZAFT pilot. This is Shinn and Rey. Nice to meet you, too. Sorry you're stuck with us for a while."

Marilyn shook her head. "Don't worry about it. This isn't the first time I've been on a warship, so I know the drill."

"Miss Peterson," said the Chairman, "I apologize, but my instructions for our pilots apply to you as well. Please refrain from asking Heero Yuy or any of his fellow pilots any questions during our talks. I'm sure your journalist instincts demand an interview, but I'm afraid that will have to wait for a while."

Marilyn nodded. "Of course, Chairman Durandal."

"Also, you are all to keep your distance from those machines," the Captain ordered, "When he contacted us Heero Yuy said they would self-destruct if we attempted to examine them, and that they would take out the _Minerva _in the process."

_That _had come out of the blue, and Lunamaria wasn't the only one taken aback by it.

"Who the hell does he think he is?" cried Shinn, "He wants to come over to our ship for a meeting and then threatens to kill us all if we touch his mobile suit?"

"He made a threat like that and you still let him on this ship?" asked Rey.

"Captain, this is insane!" cried Lunamaria.

"Enough!" snapped the Captain, "I have made my decision and the Chairman supports it. I'm permitting you to observe what happens here, but you are to take no action beyond that. Is that understood?"

Lunamaria sighed. "Yes, Captain."

"If those are you orders," said Rey.

"Understood," Shinn grumbled.

"Excellent," said Chairman Durandal, "Now, shall we move forward? Our guests should be exiting their mobile suits soon."

As they headed towards the visitors Lunamaria was surprised that they had not left their machines already. If they were trying to ratchet up the suspense in the hangar then they certainly were succeeding.

_Come on, enough hiding_, she thought impatiently, _If you guys wanted to meet with us then be man enough to do it face to face instead of from your mobile suits!_

As if they heard her mental challenge she saw the individual hatches of the five mobile suits open up. The first pilot to emerge was none other than Wing Zero's. His helmet was left in the cockpit, allowing everyone gathered to see the face of the deadliest pilot in the Cosmic Era.

"Heero Yuy…" she whispered in awe.

Lunamaria watched as the legendary pilot turned towards the other four machines and nodded. One by one their pilots emerged. From the black Reaper-like mobile suit came a young man with cobalt blue eyes, his brown hair tied back in a long braid. Out of the blue machine with the heavy gatlings and beam cannons came another brown-haired boy with dark green eyes, his bangs in a slanted hawk's wing obscuring his right eye. A blond-haired, blue-eyed boy came out of the mobile suit with the tan cloak and the wicked, curved blades. Finally, there was the pilot of the emerald machine that had saved Lunamaria's life; a young man with Chinese features, his black hair tied back in a short tail and his black eyes with an aloof look in them. All five were dressed in black flight suits, and Lunamaria could not deny that they were all quite handsome.

She gave her head a small shake. _Keep it together. Look sharp. Now's not the time to be embarrassing yourself and acting like a schoolgirl._

As their mobile suit's cockpits closed behind them the five young men floated forward, heading straight for the Captain and her entourage, with Heero Yuy at the head of the pack. Lunamaria could feel her heart pounding inside her chest like a jackhammer; the tension in the hangar continued to build with each passing second. She could see sidearms on all five of them, and in addition to that the Chinese pilot wore a curved blade on his waist as well.

After what felt like an eternity the five pilots finally came to a stop in front of Lunamaria's group. Neither party spoke, and it felt like they were sizing each other up. Lunamaria had never been involved in anything close to a situation like this before and she had absolutely no idea what was supposed to happen next.

Eventually she saw Heero Yuy hold out his hand to the Captain. "Captain Talia Gladys? It's nice to meet you."

The Captain nodded and shook his hand. "You as well, Heero Yuy. I must say I never thought I'd meet you in person."

"If things had gone the way they should've today, you wouldn't have even known we were here," Heero replied, "The attack forced my hand."

"I see," said Captain Gladys.

Then it was the Chairman's turn to exchange pleasantries, and he held out his hand. "Heero Yuy? I'm Chairman Gilbert Durandal. It's an honor to meet you face-to-face, though I wish it were other better circumstances."

Heero nodded as he accepted the Chairman's hand. "I understand the Orb Chief Representative and her bodyguard are onboard. What is their condition?"

Lunamaria saw the Captain's eyes narrow. "How do you know that?"

The red-headed ZAFT pilot looked over at Shinn. She didn't know the details, but she knew that Shinn had some issues with Orb, and having its Chief Representative onboard the _Minerva _might not be something he was cool with. Shinn certainly looked surprised at the announcement, but he didn't say anything.

"I was monitoring the colony's internal radio traffic during the attack," Heero replied, "I heard Alex Dino's transmission to your warship, and I know he brought Lady Cagalli on board for medical treatment. How are they?"

"Alex Dino is unharmed," said Captain Gladys, "As for Lady Cagalli, our Chief Medical Officer informed me earlier that she has suffered mild head trauma. She's recovering from a minor concussion and fracture in the infirmary."

Heero nodded. "I see. Thank you for taking them in."

"It was the least we could do," said Chairman Durandal, "We were playing host to them before the attack, after all."

Wing Zero's pilot turned briefly towards Marilyn, and Lunamaria was puzzled at the look he gave her. It was almost like he knew her. Turning towards the journalist, Lunamaria saw her eyes narrow slightly but beyond that there was no reaction.

The Chairman appeared to take that as his cue to introduce the rest of his entourage. "Heero Yuy, please allow me to introduce three of our finest pilots. This is Shinn Asuka, Lunamaria Hawke, and Rey Za Burrel. The civilian here is Miss Marilyn Peterson, a journalist who was caught up in the attack."

The young man simply nodded at them before looking back at the four pilots that accompanied him and gesturing for them to introduce themselves.

The one with the long braided tail was the first, giving them all a broad smile. "Name's Duo Maxwell. That baby I used to save your hides earlier is the Gundam Deathscythe Omega."

"I'm Trowa Barton," said the other brown-haired pilot, not smiling like Duo, "My mobile suit is the Gundam Heavyarms Arsenal."

The blond pilot gave the group a warm smile. "My name is Quatre Reberba Winner. I'm the pilot of the Gundam Sandrock Saladin. It's nice to meet you all."

Lunamaria turned to the pilot who had saved her life, who simply folded his arms and narrowed his eyes as he studied the group. "Chang Wufei. Nataku… I mean, Gundam Altron Custom's pilot."

"It's a pleasure to meet you all," said Captain Gladys, "On behalf of my crew, I would like to thank you all for saving our lives. We greatly appreciate your assistance."

"It was certainly quite timely," said Chairman Durandal, smiling, "Tell me, what brought the five of you out here in the first place?"

"Our mission," Heero replied, "was to simply observe the initial trials of this new battleship and its mobile suits. As the newest warship in ZAFT's fleet, employing state of the art technology and mobile weapons, its launching would naturally cause a stir, and we wanted to assess its capabilities. We're acting in our capacity as a private paramilitary force created with the intention of monitoring both the Earth Alliance and ZAFT to help prevent the outbreak of another full-scale war."

Lunamaria saw the Captain's eyes narrow. "So you were here to spy on us, then. Rather bold of you, especially to do so in a weapon specifically banned by the Treaty of Junius Seven."

"You're mistaken," said Heero, and Lunamaria was surprised at just how calm he was given where the conversation was heading, "The mobile suit I'm flying is the Gundam Albion. Wing Zero was destroyed prior to the treaty signing; the whole world witnessed it."

"Perhaps," said Chairman Durandal, "but the terms of the treaty also forbid the construction of any mobile suits that replicate its capabilities. I think it's safe to say that your 'Gundam Albion' does that and more."

The young pilot's eyes narrowed. "I'm disappointed in you, Chairman. For a politician your grasp of legalities in this situation is not what I had expected."

"Hey!" snapped Shinn, "What's that supposed to mean? Are you insulting the Chairman?"

"Shinn!" hissed Lunamaria, "Shut up!"

"I'm sorry, Lunamaria," said Rey, his eyes narrowing as he looked at Heero, "but I'm with Shinn here. Heero Yuy, you should watch yourself."

The Demon Lord of Avalon completely ignored the three Reds, his focus remaining on the Captain and the Chairman. "The terms of the Treaty of Junius Seven specifically forbade its signatory _nation-states _from rebuilding Wing Zero or designing any mobile suit that replicated its capabilities. _I _am not one of those states, nor am I a citizen of one."

"Liar!" cried Shinn, "You fought for Orb in the last war!"

"I fought alongside the forces of the Orb Union, yes," Heero replied coolly, "I also fought alongside defectors from both the Earth Alliance and the PLANTs, but I do not belong to those nations just as I do not belong to Orb. Chairman Durandal, I'm sure your intelligence services have noticed that the name 'Heero Yuy' does not show up on official Orb citizen registries."

To Lunamaria's surprise the Chairman actually chuckled at that. "Yes, we did pick up on that. You dropped right off the grid after the Second Battle of Jachin Due, along with many of your compatriots, and neither ZAFT nor Earth Alliance intelligence services have been able to find you since, at least to my knowledge."

"So you disappeared," said Captain Gladys, "That's not too surprising given all the enemies you made in the last war. Obviously you still have resources though, otherwise you would not have this 'Gundam Albion' and I suspect that your fellow pilots would not have their machines either… all of which I believe also violate the terms of the treaty."

"They would if the Earth Alliance, the PLANTs, or the Orb Union had built them," said Heero, "Fortunately that is not the case."

The Captain's eyes widened. "Do you expect me to believe that these five mobile suits were all constructed without government sanction or resources?"

"That actually is the case," Quatre chimed in, "although we do understand your doubts."

"We've got some friendly private backers to help out with things like logistics and resources," said Duo, grinning, "Call it the perks of being popular."

"I'm sure you'll understand if we don't disclose names at this time," said Trowa, "or at any other time, for that matter."

"If you don't like it you'll just have to deal with it," said Wufei with a smirk, "It's not our fault your treaty has easily exploited loopholes."

"Why, you…" growled Shinn.

Chairman Durandal held up his hands for calm. "I believe we're letting things get a bit out of hand, here. Heero Yuy, for the sake of argument, let's say that your mobile suit and those of your fellow pilots do not violate the letter of the treaty if they are wholly private undertakings and not connected to any of the three signatory governments. Lady Cagalli still oversaw the demolition of the original Wing Zero, and you are regarded as a friend of hers. If she had any involvement in an unofficial capacity in the creation of Gundam Albion or the other four units here she still would be in breach of the treaty."

"I agree," said Heero, his manner still remarkably calm, "So it's a very good thing neither Lady Cagalli nor anyone in her administration were involved. Feel free to ask her about it once she's feeling up to it."

"I intend to," said the Chairman, "but I think we're getting ahead of ourselves here. Heero Yuy, we invited you here because you said you had a proposition for us. I am still willing to hear it if it remains on the agenda."

"If you're open to it, then yes," Heero replied.

"Then please," said Captain Gladys, "tell us your proposal."

"Your forces were decimated in the attack on Armory One," said Heero, "The colony's patrol screen was thin before the attack, but now it's practically crippled. You can't afford to take any resources from it but at the same time you can't let this attack go unanswered, which is why the _Minerva's _current vector matches the last known trajectory of the unknown battleship. By now I imagine outlying patrols and L5 itself have been contacted and reinforcements will be dispatched to shore up Armory One's defenses and to cast a net to ensnare the surviving attackers. However, as of right now the _Minerva _is alone it its pursuit, and you have no idea if the enemy is the last of its kind or is simply flying towards another battle group which it will then unleash upon you."

"How's that for an assessment?" asked Duo, smirking.

"A blunt and accurate one, as much as I hate to admit it," said the Captain grimly, "How does that play into your proposal?"

"Simple," said Heero, "We wish to join you in your hunt."

For a moment there was complete silence. For her part, Lunamaria was completely blown away.

_The Demon Lord of Avalon… and those other four pilots_, she thought numbly, _want to _ally _with us?_

Her friends looked just as stunned as she was. Looking at the Captain and the Chairman, she saw that they too were quite taken aback. Curiously, only Marilyn Peterson's expression was anything other than disbelief; she almost seemed _amused _by what was playing out here.

"You…" said Captain Gladys cautiously, "You seriously wish to enter into an alliance with us?"

"Yes," Heero replied, "The party that initiated the attack on Armory One is clearly a threat to the wider peace, and as such is a priority target for our force. Naturally you would wish to bring them to justice for their actions here today. Our interests go together quite well here."

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend, as they say," Duo quipped.

"A proverb attributed to an Arabian prince who was eventually decapitated by his own subjects," said Trowa dryly.

Duo shrugged. "It's still a hell of a quote."

"We're far more powerful than anything you're packing right now," said Wufei, "Allying with us would be wise… unless you want to take your chances with three rookie pilots against an enemy that would've nailed you to the wall without our intervention."

"Say that again…" Shinn growled.

Lunamaria knew that it was important for them to remain calm, but she had to admit to feeling a little hot under the collar as well. Whoever this guy was, he seemed to know just how to irritate her.

"Easy, Wufei," said Quatre before turning to Lunamaria's group, "I apologize for any offense, but I'm afraid my friend is right. You would've been killed and the colony would likely have been destroyed as well had we not arrived when we did. From my observation your forces in this area, including the crew of this ship and its pilots, have very little combat experience. By contrast the enemy seemed well trained and seasoned. If you go up against them as you are now you will very likely be outmatched and outfought. We can tip the scales in your favor."

"I know you're unfamiliar with my fellow pilots," said Heero, "but would I be assuming too much if I said that you're familiar with _my _capabilities?"

The Captain shook her head. "No, you would not. Your reputation precedes you, Heero Yuy… and I've personally seen you in action. Avalon, the pursuit of Task Force 9.3, Jachin Due… I was there for all of those battles."

Heero nodded. "Then let me put it this way for you, Captain. Duo, Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei… individually, they are each _my _equal."

It was a good thing the legendary pilot had left his statement there; Lunamaria felt like she needed a minute to absorb the full weight of that sentence. From the expressions on the others' faces, she wasn't the only one.

For her part the Captain seemed almost at a loss for words. "You… you _cannot _be serious…"

"I would not joke about something like this," Heero replied, "Trust me when I say that we are a force unlike any other in the Cosmic Era."

"I would assume," said Chairman Durandal carefully, "that your aid would come with strings attached."

"You assume correctly," said Heero, "However, I can assure you that my terms are modest ones."

The Captain nodded. "What are they?"

"First," said Heero firmly, "under no circumstances is anyone to approach our machines without the supervision of the individual pilot. I'm sure you can understand when I say that the secrets of our Gundams are not ones that we want falling into the wrong hands."

"Of course," said Captain Gladys, "If you need any assistance with maintenance or rearmament feel free to coordinate with our Crew Chief."

"Second," said Heero, "we'll need quarters and provisions. Since we're helping you in your hunt I'd say room and board is a small price to pay. Wouldn't you?"

"Quite a bargain, given the potential payoff," said Chairman Durandal with a smirk.

"I'm not finished yet," said Heero.

"Please, continue," said the Captain.

"If we manage to capture the ship that led the attack," he said, "I want full access to its databanks. I won't interfere with your investigation; just don't interfere with mine."

"I see no problem with that," said the Chairman.

"I'd also like to speak to Lady Cagalli at some point," said Heero, his eyes narrowing, "in private, if you don't mind."

Captain Gladys nodded. "Fair enough. Any other conditions?"

"Just one," said Heero, "We'll fight alongside you and cooperate with you, but make no mistake; you do _not _command us. We're partners in this venture, not superior and subordinate."

"Who the hell do you think you are?" snarled Shinn, "If you're going to be staying on our ship you will follow the Captain's orders!"

"This seems like it would disrupt the chain of command," said Rey.

"Enough!" snapped the Captain, "What part of the Chairman's request to leave the talking to him and myself did you not understand, Shinn Asuka? Another outburst like that and I'll have you written up for insubordination!"

"As I was saying," Heero continued as if Shinn's outburst had never happened, "We'll coordinate our efforts with you, and we won't interfere in your operations. However, if you want us to do something, don't expect us to obey orders without question. We're a private group; we're _not _ZAFT soldiers. That's my final condition. Do we have a deal?"

There was a moment of silence as the Captain looked over at the Chairman. Lunamaria wasn't sure what to feel about all of this. On the one hand the terms that Heero Yuy was offering did seem like a good offer; a force of five unique mobile suits and powerful pilots in exchange for little more than resources and autonomy. However, the fact that someone like him had the power to dictate terms at all to a ZAFT Captain and the PLANT Supreme Council Chairman made her rather uneasy.

_Just who the hell are we really dealing with here?_

A single pilot, regardless of who he was, should not have been able to negotiate on equal terms with a head-of-state or a warship's commanding officer. Yet here was Heero Yuy doing exactly that and acting perfectly natural about it, as if this were something he did every day. The other four pilots with him also seemed remarkably at ease with the whole situation. They were following Heero's lead with complete confidence that he knew what he was doing, which it certainly appeared that he did.

Eventually she saw the Chairman nod at the Captain. The Captain Gladys held out her hand.

"We have a deal, Heero Yuy," she said, "On behalf of my crew I hereby accept your offer of cooperation."

The pilot accepted her hand. "Thank you, Captain. From here on out, call me Heero."

"For now I plan on continuing along our current course," said the Captain, "At the first sign of the enemy I will contact you."

Heero nodded. "We'll be seeing to our mobile suits for now. I understand you're very busy right now, and we haven't a moment to lose. If you'd prefer I can speak to your XO later about quarters. Since the ship launched prematurely I'm assuming you don't have it completely crewed yet?"

"Yes," said Captain Gladys, "Some personnel were still due to board when the attack occurred, but they were diverted to the shelters when we launched, so we actually have a surplus of quarters available right now. I'll instruct Arthur to contact you about it later."

"Appreciated," Heero replied, "We should get to work."

"Agreed," said the Captain before she turned to her pilots, "Shinn, Lunamaria, Rey? Rest up. Be ready for action at a moment's notice. Also, if our guests have any questions about the _Minerva_ I want you to help however you can."

Lunamaria nodded. "Understood, Captain."

Both Shinn and Rey nodded as well, though the former looked pretty reluctant. Out of the corner of her eye Lunamaria could've sworn she saw Marilyn smile and nod at Heero. Looking back at the legendary pilot she thought she saw him give a very slight nod in return, but it was so small that she could very easily have been imagining it.

"All right, everyone," said the Captain, "You know what you have to do. Dismissed!"

….

As he settled into Wing Zero Albion's cockpit and closed the hatch Heero breathed a sigh of relief. There had been a few close calls earlier, but his fellow Gundam pilots had followed his lead very well. They were as adaptable and intelligent as ever, and he would need that and more from them in the days to come.

_I need to work up a serious debriefing for them_, he thought, _I can't just keep telling them to follow my lead; we're too independent-minded to do that for long. The more information they have at their disposal the easier things will be going forward._

Assembling a comprehensive data package would take time, but he could at least give them a summary and then fill in the details later. As long as they had a working knowledge of the Cosmic Era and the storm he'd whipped up with Wing Zero in the last war they would be able to improvise from there.

For now, though, there was something else that Heero needed to attend to. Doing a limited power-up of his Gundam, he brought the advanced communications array online.

_With the shuttle's speed she should be back in Orb by now_, he thought as he set up the encrypted link, _I just hope she can reach the others when we're done._

The display shifted, and Heero could not help but give a small smile as the love of his life appeared on the screen. She had traded in the black flight suit from earlier for a red and black shirt and khaki pants, fitting for the cover she shared with him when back home as a Morgenroete employee. She was as beautiful as ever, with her long brown hair flowing freely past her shoulders. Her lovely brown eyes remained warm beacons of compassion and strength, and they went well together with her light, soft skin and her moist, full lips. Her loose fitting civilian clothes did little to hide a tall and athletic figure with wonderful curves in all the right places.

Murrue Ramius gave him a warm smile. "Heero, it's so good to hear from you! I was getting worried."

Heero nodded. "I'm sorry about that. I know that when we began this mission we agreed to minimal radio contact while I was on site, but I still wish I'd contacted you sooner. When did you get back in Orb?"

"About an hour ago," she said, "I still can't believe how swift that new shuttle is. We made remarkable time!"

"Glad to hear it," said Heero, "I'm sure we'll be getting plenty of use out of that craft in the future."

"I imagine so," Murrue replied, "So, Heero, what do you have to report?"

Heero sighed. "Bad news, I'm afraid. Armory One was just attacked."

Murrue's eyes widened in shock. "Oh, no… how bad is it? Are Miriallia, Cagalli, and Athrun okay?"

"The colony was infiltrated," said Heero, "and three of the prototypes were hijacked. Our friends are safe. While the three prototypes were rampaging in the military facilities an unknown battleship equipped with Mirage Colloid decloaked and took out the _Vidar_, while a battle group emerged from the L4 debris field. I had to reveal myself and intervene in the fight. The colony remains intact, although I don't know the full extent of the interior damage, and two of the stolen prototypes and the battle group from the debris field were destroyed. I'm on board the _Minerva _in pursuit of the unknown battleship."

"Wait," said Murrue, "You're _what_?"

Heero nodded. "I know; I hardly expected to end up boarding ZAFT's new battleship when this mission started. Don't worry, Murrue; I entered freely, and I'm being treated as a guest. We've worked out an arrangement."

Murrue took a deep breath. "I'm assuming you'll be sending over data so we can get a full picture of what happened?"

"I'll get a full report worked up shortly," he said, "but… Murrue, believe it or not, the attack's not the only surprise I've run into out here."

Murrue's eyes narrowed. "What is it, Heero? What else is going on?"

"I ran into four old friends," he said, "from an _old_ war."

One thing Heero had learned over the years was that wording was everything. He'd told Murrue everything about his war in his old world, along with the pilots that had fought on his side. With the way he had phrased his statement he knew that there was only one place her mind would go.

From the stunned look on her face he knew she'd reached the conclusion he'd wanted her to. "No way… it really is… _them_?"

Heero nodded. "I'm sending you a preliminary data packet before I get my full report worked up. Pass it along to the Tiger and the Wolf, Murrue, and have them round up the others. The situation has become _much_ more complicated."

**Preview for next time!**

_Having struck a deal with Captain Talia Gladys and Chairman Gilbert Durandal, Heero and the other four Gundam pilots settle in on the Minerva as the battleship pursues the Girty Lue. Sensing that the rapidly unfolding situation could further escalate, Heero instructs Murrue and the others in Terminal to prepare for action. A malfunction in the Girty Lue's Mirage Colloid system allows the Minerva to track her down, but Phantom Pain's battleship is on course for a rendezvous with the Black Fleet's Force Beta, setting the stage for a battle amidst the orbital Debris Belt. Meanwhile, the remnants of the late Patrick Zala's former regime set a plan of their own into motion, one far worse than Colonel Nazara's strike on Armory One. Next time, on "Destiny's Call", Episode Four: The Brewing Storm._

_War is coming…_

**Author's Notes**: All right, feels good to have Episode Three released already. I know you all were really clamoring for that after the way I left things in Episode Two.

If you already hate Colonel Nazara or are starting too, that's good; it's what I want. Trust me, by the time his true identity is revealed things will make a lot of sense… and you'll hate him even more for it. Hey, a good fic needs good villains, right?

Until next time! Please review!


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Notes: **Hello again, everyone, it's good to be back. I did warn you all in the last chapter that the updates would be slower in coming; I'm getting back into my stride of long, detailed chapters, and that's not going to be changing anytime soon. I work at my pace, and no one else's.

Special thanks goes to EpyonZero23 for creating the cover I'm now using for this story. I owe you one, buddy!

Only two songs for this chapter, in order of appearance, both from Gundam Wing: "Using the Cloak of Darkness" and "The Wings of a Boy Who Killed Adolescence."

Enjoy!

**Episode Four: The Brewing Storm**

In the hidden and sophisticated communications room inside the seaside estate they shared with several of their closest friends, Murrue leaned forward in her chair and listened carefully as Heero gave her a detailed rundown of the attack on Armory One and the arrival of the other four Gundam pilots. On the surface she was calm, but inside her heart was pounding as she took in his riveting account, and her mind was racing with the potential ramifications and possible next moves.

There was a moment of silence after Heero concluded what Murrue would consider to be the verbal summation of his imminent report. She considered herself lucky that she had the comm room to herself for the moment; she felt like she needed the space to absorb everything that her boyfriend had told her.

Murrue was the first one to break the silence. "Well, you certainly weren't exaggerating when you said that the situation had become much more complicated."

Heero nodded. "For now the others are following my lead, but I can't ask them to do that forever. Once I get them briefed on our world and the last war they'll be able to make their way forward without relying on me."

"You're not worried about one of them accidentally blowing your cover?" she asked.

Heero shook her head. "Trust me, Murrue; they're quick on their feet. They're already adapting. I just need to give them more material to work with."

"Does Cagalli know yet?" asked Murrue.

"No," Heero replied, "I haven't had a chance to speak to her yet, and she's still in the med bay. I'll get her and Athrun up to speed as soon as I can. Miriallia's already got some idea of what's going on, but I'll need to talk to her eventually too."

"None of you are at risk from ZAFT?" she said nervously, "They made you a priority target for a reason in the last war, Heero, and they're part of the reason we've kept a low profile since then. I'm sure they haven't forgotten the path of destruction you carved through their ranks."

Heero nodded. "I know. Saving the _Minerva _and Armory One seems to have bought us some good will, though, and with the casualties ZAFT suffered in the attack they weren't exactly in a position to turn down my offer."

"All right," said Murrue, "If the Supreme Council Chairman is on board though, you know that he's going to want to question Cagalli about your Gundam. After all, she did host the demolition last year. Do you think she'll be okay during his interrogation?"

"Yes," Heero replied, "We helped her practice her cover story, Murrue, remember? She'll be fine."

Murrue smiled. "I'll trust your judgment on that, Heero. So, what's your next move?"

"Bringing the others up to speed on the Cosmic Era is next on my to-do list," said Heero, "After that it's up in the air. As soon as Cagalli's feeling better I'll talk to her and Athrun. From there on it really depends on how long it takes us to find that unidentified battleship."

"Considering it's equipped with Mirage Colloid that will be a tall order," said Murrue, her eyes narrowing, "Who do you think built it?"

"The Earth Alliance," Heero replied immediately, "If I had to guess I'd say it was a black project."

Murrue nodded. "Makes sense… and they'd have plenty of incentive to raid Armory One given what ZAFT was developing there. Ships and mobile suits commonly used by the Earth Alliance but with no standard beacons or markings, infiltrators that hijacked the three prototypes and sowed chaos inside the colony… this has all the makings of a black operation."

"Agreed," said Heero, "Of course, we can't prove it."

"Not right now," Murrue replied, smiling again, "but if you can capture that ship then it's a whole new ballgame."

She was pleased to see Heero give her a small smile in return. "Roger that. Speaking of that ship, I was reviewing the combat footage and noticed something interesting about one of the mobile suits it carries."

"What is it?" she asked.

"Check this out," he said.

Images of the battle appeared on the screen, with Heero fast-forwarding through them until he reached one at a point just a bit before he had engaged the violet mobile suit with the gunbarrel drones.

"Check out the black and red mobile suit in the background," he said, "Notice anything about it?"

Murrue leaned forward as Heero zoomed the image in on the machine that was breaking off to go fight the Impulse. Her eyes narrowed as she saw the red skull and diamond emblazoned in its Phase Shift Armor.

"That symbol!" she said, her eyes widening, "That's the logo for Desperado Enforcement!"

Heero nodded. "Their main office is in the Atlantic Federation, and according to Bristow they're not above taking dirty jobs under the table. I can see the Earth Alliance bringing them in for a black op like this."

"That looked like a pretty sophisticated mobile suit," said Murrue, "Do you think Desperado developed it themselves?"

"It's possible," Heero replied, "They've grown to the point that they have the resources for something like that. However, it's also possible that it could be on loan to them from the Earth Alliance for combat testing… or it could've been sold to them outright."

"If this was a black op," said Murrue, "why wouldn't the pilot reprogram the Phase Shift Armor to hide the logo?"

"They probably thought that no one would survive the attack," said Heero grimly, "That battle group that came out of the debris field would've started bombarding the colony after it had destroyed the _Minerva_, and that unknown battleship and its mobile suits were doing a pretty good job of ripping up the ZAFT patrol screen. It's a good thing the others arrived when they did."

"Speaking of the others," said Murrue, her eyes narrowing again, "their arrival here wasn't an accident. I think… I think we both know why they're here, Heero."

Heero nodded. "Three of them, at least. As for Wufei, I don't think he's the type to go along just for that. Still, I know you're right, and you know what my answer will be to them."

Murrue smiled; Heero's reply was proof of how well she knew him by now. "So, when are you going to break it to them? About us, I mean."

"Soon enough," Heero replied, and Murrue was surprised to see him smirk, "preferably when I introduce them to you face to face."

Murrue could not help but laugh. "Yes, I suppose the looks on their faces when I kiss you will make it worth the wait."

"Especially Duo's," said Heero with a chuckle, "We should have someone ready to take a picture of him when it happens. It'll be good for a laugh."

"If what you've told me about him is any indication, I'm sure it will be," said Murrue.

"For now I'll just tell them I'm not going back," said Heero, becoming serious again, "We can work with Erica to figure out how to get them back to their world, but that will take some time. In the meanwhile, we could definitely use their help."

"With things the way they are now, I can't argue with that," Murrue replied, "Speaking of help, Heero, how can _I _help you? There's got to be more I can do here than just relaying data from you to the others. I can't just sit back here and act as a messenger while you're risking your life!"

"I know," said Heero, "and I wasn't planning on it. I _do _need your help, Murrue, beyond the role you're playing right now."

Murrue smiled and her heart started racing with excitement. "What can I do, Heero? Name it and it'll be done."

"Contact Erica," he said, "and have her start fitting the positron boosters to the _Archangel_. Get in touch with the crew and put them on standby."

Murrue's eyes widened; she hadn't been expecting _that_. "Are you sure, Heero?"

Heero nodded. "Yes. Give Natarle and the others out at the L3 resource satellite a heads up, too. The _Dominion _should launch and head for the orbital Debris Belt; it can cruise through there and remain concealed until we know for sure what battlefield to reveal it at."

"Wait a minute," said Murrue, "You think we'll need _both _battleships?"

"Both battleships and the mobile suits that are ready with them," Heero replied, his eyes narrowing, "Murrue, this is bigger than just a raid on a colony to snag a few prototypes. I don't know what's coming next, but whatever it is I have a feeling it'll take more than our Gundams and the _Minerva _to deal with."

It was a sobering statement, but Murrue did not question it. Ever since Heero had first mentioned the attack on Armory One she'd felt that something larger was at work. She just hadn't expected Heero to ask her to put their big guns on standby so early in the game.

"What about the _Kusanagi _and the _Eternal_?" she asked, "Should I request the Tiger and the Wolf mobilize them as well?"

Heero shook his head. "_Kusanagi's _an official part of the Orb Union Space Fleet; if we get her involved it will make things even more complicated for Cagalli. As for the _Eternal_, I think we should keep her in reserve for now."

Murrue nodded. "All right. About the _Dominion _and her mobile suits, though… are you sure Shemei's ready? That machine…"

"She's been training hard and Eric's been supporting her," Heero replied, "More to the point, that mobile suit's meant for someone with a duelist's mentality, and she's got that. She's ready, Murrue. I'd stake my life on it."

"Okay, Heero," said Murrue, "I trust your judgment. I'll contact the others and get the ball rolling."

"Thank you," said Heero, "Be ready to launch at any time."

Murrue smiled. "You got it. Be careful, Heero. I love you."

The Gundam pilot gave her a small smile in return. "I love you too, Murrue."

….

"Cagalli!" said Athrun, "How are you feeling?"

Orb's Chief Representative closed her eyes for a moment as she sat up in the bed. "I think so… my head could be better."

Raising her hand to her head, she could feel the bandages wrapped around her forehead. There was a cool sensation coming from her head not too far from where the cut had been, and she realized that the bandages were also holding a cold compress there as well.

She looked around the med bay for a moment. "Where am I?"

"The _Minerva_'s infirmary," Athrun replied, "Don't you remember me bringing you here?"

There were some brief flashes from the earlier battle going through her head, and she vaguely recalled Athrun taking her to ZAFT's new battleship, but pieces were still missing. "Maybe… I must've passed out again before we landed."

"You did, actually," said a nearby woman with short brown hair and blue eyes in a green ZAFT uniform, "You were very lucky, Lady Cagalli; the head trauma could've been much worse."

Cagalli smiled. "Did you treat me?"

The young woman nodded. "I'm part of the ship's medical staff. Nurse Natalie Rhodes, at your service. It's an honor to meet you, Lady Cagalli."

Cagalli bowed her head. "Thank you for helping me."

"It was my pleasure," she replied before looking over at Athrun, "Your body guard has been worried sick about you. He hasn't left your side since he brought you on board."

Cagalli looked over at her boyfriend. "Ath… Alex…"

Athrun smiled at her and grabbed her hand. "I'm just glad you're up, Cagalli."

"You're still not out of the woods just yet," said Natalie, "Our Chief Medical Officer left me in charge of you while he files his report, and I'm under orders to keep you in bed for the time being. Please understand that it's for your own good, Lady Cagalli. We need to keep you under observation to make sure the swelling doesn't get any worse."

"How long will I be here?" asked Cagalli.

"No more than a day, I believe," Natalie replied, "Is there anything I can get for you?"

Cagalli smiled. "May I please have some water? I feel like I could drain a lake right now."

Natalie nodded. "Of course. I'll be just a moment."

As the nurse went to get her drink Cagalli turned to Athrun. "Alex… what happened to the colony? What's going on with the battle?"

"They cancelled the alert a little bit ago," Athrun replied, "so I know the battle's over. I don't know the status of Armory One though. The _Minerva _was forced to launch after we boarded to help repel the attack. Beyond that I don't know what's going on."

Cagalli nodded. "I see."

"As soon as we're able to we'll have to contact Orb and let them know you're okay," said Athrun.

Cagalli nodded again. "They'll want a full briefing on what happened here… I don't think I'm up for that yet."

"I agree," said Natalie as she returned as handed Cagalli a bottle of water, "I'm sorry for eavesdropping, but I'm afraid our Chief Medical Officer won't be letting you do anything strenuous for the next twenty-four hours, and that includes high-level communiqués. On the bright side, it will give you some time to compose and prepare yourself."

"She's right, Cagalli," said Athrun, "Don't worry about the homeland for now, okay? Just focus on getting better."

Cagalli smiled at him as she took a drink. "Okay, Ath… Alex."

A soft chime came from a speaker over by the med bay door.

"Please excuse me," said Natalie before going to check on it.

Cagalli and Athrun watched as the door opened just as the nurse got to it. They were surprised to see both Chairman Durandal and Captain Gladys standing outside.

"Chairman! Captain!" said Natalie as she saluted, "What brings you here?"

"We wished to check in on the two guests we have here," said the Captain.

"I know Lady Cagalli is still recovering from earlier," said the Chairman, "but I'm afraid we must speak with her."

"With all due respect, Chairman, Captain," said Natalie, and Cagalli could hear the nervousness in her voice, "I'm under orders from my immediate superior to make sure Lady Cagalli rests up. She's in no condition for any high-level talks at the moment."

"I understand your concerns, nurse," said the Chairman with a sympathetic smile, "but I'm afraid this is an urgent matter."

"Chairman, please," said Natalie, "Can't this wait just a little while?"

"I'm sorry, Nurse Rhodes," said the Captain, "but this is vital. Let us in, Nurse Rhodes. That's a direct order from your Captain."

The nurse bowed her head and looked towards Cagalli and Athrun, her expression apologetic. "Lady Cagalli…"

Cagalli shook her head and smiled for the young woman. "It's okay, Natalie. We'll be all right."

"If you will please excuse us, nurse," said the Chairman, "I apologize, but these are sensitive matters of state."

Natalie bowed her head. "I'll be in the office. If there are any problems I wish to be notified at once."

"Of course," said the Captain.

The Chairman and the Captain approached Athrun and Cagalli, waiting for Natalie to leave before speaking.

"How are you feeling, Lady Cagalli?" asked the Captain.

Cagalli nodded. "Much better. Thank you for taking us in, Captain Gladys."

The Captain smiled. "It was the least we could do. I'm sorry you got caught up the attack. Our security should've gotten you and your bodyguard to a shelter."

Cagalli shook her head. "It's not your fault. The Chairman had one of his aides leading us to a shelter, but… he was killed during the attack."

Chairman Durandal sighed, and Cagalli was surprised to see that his remorse seemed genuine. "Evans… he will be missed."

There was a moment of silence before Athrun spoke. "What's the status of Armory One?"

"Relatively secure for now," Captain Gladys replied, "The enemy has been driven off, and we are in pursuit."

Athrun's eyes widened. "_Pursuit?_ You have both Orb's Chief Representative and the PLANT Supreme Council Chairman on this ship!"

"A fact that I'm well aware of," said the Captain firmly, "but we cannot afford to let the enemy get away. They must be brought to justice!"

"The Captain is correct," said the Chairman, "I'm sorry, Lady Cagalli, but I'm afraid we cannot divert and return you to Orb quite yet. If there is a chance for us to catch the perpetrators of this attack then we must take it."

Cagalli nodded. "It's all right. I understand why you're doing this, and I support it. The people who attacked Armory One need to answer for what they've done, and they're a threat to the peace that so many died for two years ago. If my return to Orb must wait so that we may capture or destroy them, then so be it."

"Cagalli…" said Athrun.

She looked at him and smiled. "It's okay, Alex. I'm sure we're in good hands. Besides, with you here they'll have a very good pilot at their disposal."

"I'm afraid that's out of the question," said Captain Gladys, "Lady Cagalli, your bodyguard may have been able to pilot a ZAKU Warrior during the attack, and I don't doubt that he has prior military experience, but the fact remains that here and now he is a civilian. Alex Dino, you will not be taking part in our combat operations."

"But I can help!" Athrun protested, "As Lady Cagalli's bodyguard it is my duty to defend her, and I the best way that I can do that with a mobile suit. No other pilot's been assigned to the ZAKU Warrior that I brought aboard, right? I can still fly it, I'm a veteran of the last war, and I'd even be willing to operate under your command, Captain!"

"You know, Talia," said Chairman Durandal with a smile, "his willingness to subordinate himself to your orders _is _something that our other guests did not offer."

Both Cagalli and Athrun's eyes narrowed.

"_Other _guests?" she asked, "Excuse me, but what is going on?"

"I'm sorry, Lady Cagalli," said Captain Gladys, "but I'm afraid the reason that the Chairman and I are here is more than just as a courtesy."

"What are you talking about?" asked Athrun.

"When I said earlier that the enemy had been driven off," the Captain continued, "I neglected to tell you that it was not _our _forces that had beaten them back. As much as it pains me to admit it, if it were only our forces on the battlefield today we would've been defeated and Armory One likely destroyed."

"So someone intervened," said Cagalli, "Who was it?"

"An old friend of yours from the last war," said Chairman Durandal, his eyes narrowing, "I'm sure you haven't forgotten Heero Yuy."

Cagalli was stunned. "_Heero_'s out here?"

"Why would _he _be here?" asked Athrun.

"A very good question," said the Captain, "and another one would be 'why is he flying a mobile suit that appears for all intents and purposes to be an upgraded Wing Zero?'"

Cagalli's eyes narrowed. Even with her head injury she maintained enough of her wits to know where this conversation was heading. It was a possibility that she had prepared for ever since Heero had explained his plan for preserving Wing Zero in secret while tricking the rest of the world into believing that it had been destroyed. Heero had even been the one to coach her on what sorts of questions to expect and how to respond. She just hoped that she would be able to put that practice to good use now.

"Captain," said Cagalli carefully, "what are you implying?"

"Allow me, Talia," said Chairman Durandal, "Lady Cagalli, prior to the signing of the Treaty of Junius Seven you hosted not only Provisional Supreme Council Chairwoman Eileen Canaver but also the Atlantic Federation President and an international media delegation at the demolition of Wing Zero. You specifically held that event as a show of good faith in order to move the treaty forward to ratification by the PLANTs, Earth Alliance, and the Orb Union."

Cagalli nodded. "Yes, I did. After the suffering both Orb and the rest of the world endured in the Bloody Valentine War I understood that compromise and sacrifice would be necessary in order to bring about a meaningful peace treaty. It took some doing, but I was able to convince Heero of that as well, which is why he turned over Wing Zero to me for demolition."

"So you're saying that that truly was Wing Zero that was destroyed February of last year?" asked the Captain, her eyes narrowing.

Cagalli hardened her expression, a practice she had learned well through watching her father over the years. "My administration was and remains completely devoted to the peace, Captain Gladys. The world needed Wing Zero to be destroyed in order for there to be a treaty, so we fulfilled that desire."

"And the mobile suit that Heero Yuy flew today?" asked Chairman Durandal, "Does the Orb Union deny any knowledge of it?"

"Yes," she replied firmly, "We do."

"Liar!" cried a male voice.

….

Shinn Asuka hadn't come to the _Minerva_'s medical bay by choice. As the pilot of the prototype Impulse he was required to get a full evaluation after each sortie in the mobile suit, whether it was training or combat. He hadn't paid much attention to the explanations for why this was necessary when they had first been brought up; he vaguely remembered something about ZAFT wanting to get complete confirmation that piloting a mobile suit as advanced as the Impulse would have no negative lasting effects on the person assigned to it.

Shinn wasn't alone; Rey was with him. Both pilots had changed out of their flight suits and into their regular red uniforms. Rey was actually under the same orders as Shinn was; a medical exam after every flight. Shinn had always been puzzled by this since the ZAKU Phantom Rey flew, while a formidable mobile suit, was not as intense to pilot as something like the Impulse or one of the stolen prototypes. He had tried asking his friend about it, but Rey had always either changed the subject or pretended to not hear him. Shinn had asked Lunamaria and a few others if they knew anything about it, but they appeared to be as much in the dark as he was.

The door to the medical bay may have been closed as Shinn and Rey approached, but it was hardly soundproofed. Shinn could hear muffled voices coming from inside, and as he and his friend had gotten closer he'd been able to make out who the speakers were and what they were saying.

"The Captain and the Chairman," he heard Rey whisper, "Shinn we should come back later."

Shinn barely heard him. What he was hearing them discuss with the Orb Chief Representative and her bodyguard was raising the hairs on the back of his neck. Old memories from two years ago were resurfacing, and he could feel a burning sensation in his chest.

"Shinn," said Rey cautiously, "Don't do anything rash."

It was a warning that may as well have gone in one ear and out the other. The more Shinn heard the more enraged he became, especially as he listened to the Chief Representative make one lie after another to the Captain and the Chairman about Wing Zero. Shinn hadn't bought Heero Yuy's spiel about his mobile suit being an entirely new 'Gundam Albion' for a moment, and even if it was there was no way in hell he believed that the Demon Lord of Avalon had built it without the help of the Orb government.

Finally he couldn't take it anymore, and he barged into the medical bay. "Liar!"

Everyone in the room turned to him as he entered, while Rey followed in his wake. "Shinn, let it go."

"Shinn Asuka, what the hell are you doing?" snapped the Captain, "How dare you intrude on a meeting between your superiors and a foreign head of state!"

"She's telling you the same bullshit that Heero Yuy and those other four pilots told us down in the hangar!" Shinn snapped back, "I can't believe you and the Chairman are actually taking her seriously!"

Rey grabbed his shoulder. "Shinn, this isn't the time!"

Had Shinn been more attentive and less ruled by his anger he would've noticed Cagalli and her bodyguard trade startled looks at his mention of 'those other four pilots', and the Chairman and the Captain would've seen it as well. However, his fury had distracted both him and his superiors from recognizing that gesture and the potential importance behind it.

Before he could do anything else the Chief Representative's bodyguard moved forward. "You dare to insult the Representative like this? I thought ZAFT soldiers were trained to act more appropriately with visiting dignitaries! You're a disgrace to your uniform and what it represents!"

"Shut up!" snarled Shinn, "What the hell do you know about anything? You're just her goddamned lapdog!"

"Shinn, that is enough," said Chairman Durandal, "Whatever quarrels you may have with our guests should be addressed through the proper channels."

"You're in breach of protocol and being disrespectful not only to our guests but to your superior officer and our Supreme Council Chairman as well!" said the Captain, "I know you're originally from the Orb Union and have past grievances with it, but if you continue in this manner I will have no choice but to throw you in the brig!"

"_Grievances_?" spat Shinn, clenching his fists, "It's more than just that!"

"Whatever petty concerns you may have," said the bodyguard with a glare, "you should be more careful in how you voice them."

"_Petty concerns?_" Shinn snarled before pointing at the Representative, "My entire family was killed thanks to Orb!"

He saw Cagalli's eyes widen in shock. "What? Your family…"

Shinn nodded, his fury now directed straight at her. "I believed in your country and your ideals. My entire family did! Then they were all killed when the Alliance attacked Elysium!"

Both Cagalli and her bodyguard were taken aback like that.

"Elysium…" said Cagalli softly.

"Yeah," said Shinn, struggling to continue articulating in the face of his near-overwhelming rage, "We were evacuated from the homeland during the Alliance invasion on the surface and were set up in the refugee camps. When the Alliance followed us into space and attacked the colony the local residents were evacuated while the refugees were left to fend for themselves! You abandoned your own people to slaughter!"

Cagalli shook her head, her face pale. "No… we never meant for…"

"Don't bother with your pathetic excuses!" Shinn spat, "I'm done believing in your family and your so-called ideals. I refuse to believe in Orb. I refuse to believe in your seemingly innocent bullshit!"

The bodyguard took a step forward and grabbed him by the shoulder. "I demand that you take that back at once, you little punk!"

"Apologize at once, Shinn!" the Captain demanded.

"Yes, Shinn Asuka," said the Chairman, "Please, you must apologize. If you do I will personally guarantee that there will be no consequences for this incident."

"Shinn, come on," said Rey."

"Are ZAFT med bays always this lively?"

It was a new voice, but one that was familiar to Shinn; he'd heard it down in the hangar earlier. Turning around, he was confronted by the sight of none other than Heero Yuy standing in the doorway of the infirmary. He had changed out of his black flight suit and now wore a pair of blue jeans, a green tank top, and a dark blue jacket.

"You…" he said.

"Heero!" said Cagalli.

"What are you doing here?" asked the bodyguard.

"I could ask the same question," said Chairman Durandal, "What brings you to this part of the ship, Heero Yuy?"

"I was familiarizing myself with the _Minerva_'s internal layout," the famous pilot replied casually, "I also wanted to check in on Cagalli. She is an old friend of mine, after all. Cagalli, are you doing all right?"

The girl nodded and smiled. "I'm okay, all things considered. Chairman Durandal and Captain Gladys just told me a little bit ago that you were here. I had no idea that you'd come out this way."

"I was in the area on business when the attack occurred," said Heero, "along with four old friends."

"_Four _old friends?" asked the bodyguard pointedly.

Heero nodded. "You never met them in the last war, and I apologize for that. They're on the _Minerva _with me now, and I'll properly introduce you all later."

Cagalli nodded, and Shinn saw her eyes narrow. "We'll be looking forward to it."

Shinn didn't give a crap about the pleasantries they were exchanging. Heero's entrance had completely stolen his thunder, and his anger was rapidly becoming little more than impotent frustration.

He saw Heero turn to the Captain and the Chairman. "Am I intruding?"

Both of them nodded.

"Not to be blunt or rude, Heero Yuy, but I'm afraid you are," said the Captain before she turned to Shinn and Rey, "As are the two of you, and if one of you wants to avoid some time in the brig then an apology would be in order right about now."

"I apologize, Captain," said Rey, "but Shinn and I are required to come here after every flight for medical evaluation."

"I didn't mean an apology from _you_, Rey," Captain Gladys replied, "and I'm well aware of the requirements that you and Shinn are under for medical evaluation, but that will have to wait until later."

She then glared at Shinn, not saying anything but making perfectly clear with her withering gaze what was expected of him. He looked over at the bodyguard, who removed his hand from his shoulder.

Shinn looked at Cagalli. "I'm… sorry."

His voice was barely over a whisper, and it stung his pride deeply to have to utter those two words. There wasn't an ounce of sincerity behind them, and he refused to give her or the others any more than that.

Luckily for him it appeared that the Representative was unwilling to press the matter. "It's all right, Shinn Asuka. Also… I truly am sorry about your family. I admit that Orb did fail them, along with the other refugees on Elysium. I've been trying ever since then to make up for that failing… and many others."

Shinn didn't know what to say to that; it had come out of nowhere. Unlike him she had actually seemed sincere in her apology. It was too much for him to handle right now. All he could do was look down for a moment before nodding at her.

"Now please, Shinn, Rey," said Chairman Durandal, "I must ask that you leave us for now. I'm sorry, Heero Yuy, but I'm afraid that also goes for you as well. Do not worry; per our agreement I assure you that you will have time later on to speak to Lady Cagalli in private."

The legendary pilot nodded. "Along with your medical staff's continued care for her injuries, that's all I can ask. I'll take my leave now."

With that Heero left the room, with Shinn and Rey following close behind him. As the door closed behind the three of them Shinn expected Heero to go his own way, but he was surprised when Wing Zero's pilot turned to face him.

"You're the Impulse's pilot, correct?" he said.

Shinn's eyes widened. "How do you know that?"

"It's hardly a state secret," Heero replied, "I went over dossiers for the assigned pilots of the prototypes being developed at Armor One along with those of other prominent officers and officials prior to the start of my mission. It would seem that the profile of you was more than a little charitable."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Rey.

Shinn glared. "You've got something you want to say?"

"Yes," said Heero bluntly, "Your official dossier had listed your natural talent, but also said you were a little 'hot-headed'. If what I just saw in there was any indication I'd say that whoever wrote the file was significantly understating the matter. It certainly helps to explain why you were defeated today."

"Hey!" snapped Shinn, "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Goddamn it, Shinn," Rey muttered.

"A man once told me," said Heero, "that the best way to live a good life is to act on your emotions. I agree with that sentiment and have tried to follow it to the best of my abilities. However, there is a fine line between acting on your emotions and being _ruled _by them."

"Cut the crap," Shinn growled, "If you want to insult me, say it plainly."

Heero nodded. "If you insist. If you're going to follow your rage every time you get into a fight then you're not a soldier. You're just a brat with a mobile suit."

Shinn clenched his fists, the rage that Heero had called him out on swiftly building. "You'd better watch yourself…"

"Shinn, don't do this," said Rey.

"If you can't master your anger and come to terms with the past," Heero continued, "then you're not fit to be a soldier and a mobile suit pilot. You're not fighting to protect anyone; you're just trying to satisfy yourself. All the anger and talent in the world will not bring your family back to life."

_That _was the last straw. All the fury that had been churning about inside him since first hearing Cagalli's voice in the med bay was now swirling like a raging cyclone. It needed an outlet, _any _outlet, and the pilot in front of him would do nicely.

He hauled off and let fly with a right hook, but his fist met only air. For a split second Shinn saw Heero Yuy's rapidly approaching head…

…and then the world went black.

….

"Shinn! Hey, Shinn!"

"Wake up, Shinn."

The voices somehow managed to pierce the daze that the young ZAFT Red was in, and the blackness that had taken him earlier gradually began to recede. Two red blurs were standing over him, and as the seconds went by they eventually cleared up to the point that Shinn began to recognize them as Lunamaria and Rey.

"Hey! Wake up, idiot!"

That was the only warning Shinn got before the open palm of Lunamaria's hand met his cheek in a hard slap. It certainly helped speed him back to consciousness, but the stinging that followed was not a welcome partner to the throbbing in his head.

"What happened?" he mumbled as he tried to stand up.

"From what Rey told me," said Lunamaria as she helped him to his feet, "it sounds like you were being a dumbass. Even for you that was stupid…"

"What are you talking about?" asked Shinn before turning to Rey for help.

His blond friend was more helpful than the red-head. "You picked a fight with Heero Yuy, remember?"

A few images flashed through his mind, and Shinn nodded. "I think so… how'd I do?"

Lunamaria looked completely flabbergasted. "_How'd you do? _He dodged your only punch, head butted you, and knocked you the fuck out! You've been napping on the floor here for the past ten minutes!"

"Oh…" said Shinn, his face flushed with embarrassment, "Do… do the Captain and the Chairman know?"

"They still haven't left the med bay," said Rey.

"You're lucky that Rey and I will cover for you," said Lunamaria, shaking her head, "You'd just better hope that Heero doesn't tell the Captain about this, or this time she'll really lay into you, and I won't back you up then."

"Come on," said Rey, "You need to get something to eat and drink. We can come back later for our medical evaluations. If they ask about your head just say you hit it during the fight and your helmet wasn't enough to completely absorb the impact."

"I'll slip in there and get you a cold compress," said Lunamaria, "If the others ask I'll say it's for me. You owe me one."

Shinn nodded. "Thanks. By the way, why are you over this way in the first place?"

"I was coming to check up on you guys," she replied, "I know you're both supposed to get checked out after each flight, and this was our first combat sortie. You two doing okay? Besides that bump on your head, Shinn."

"We'll be fine, Lunamaria," said Rey.

"Yeah," said Shinn, desperate to change the subject, "I think I just need something to eat, like Rey said."

Lunamaria nodded. "Do that and then go get some rest. Rey and I will wake you up if anything happens. I'll catch up to you after I get the compress."

"All right," said Shinn.

"Rey," said Lunamaria, "keep him out of trouble, please?"

Rey nodded. "I will."

Lunamaria turned towards the med bay, and Shinn could've sworn he heard her mutter the word 'idiot' under her breath. After what had happened earlier, Shinn privately admitted that he deserved that.

What the hell had happened? He was a Coordinator, and from everything Shinn had heard Heero Yuy was supposed to be a Natural, but the way he had moved during their _very _short fight was absolutely inhuman.

_You watched the sword fight between him and the Valkyrie that got posted online during the last war_, he mentally berated himself, _You knew he wasn't like a regular Natural. You walked right into that beat down._

As Rey led him towards the _Minerva's _dining facility he silently swore not to get caught off guard like that again. He shook off Heero's earlier admonition about his anger ruling him; if the so-called Demon Lord of Avalon been through anything _close _to what Shinn had suffered then he wouldn't have the nerve to lecture him about being emotional.

"Shinn?" said Rey cautiously, "Are you doing okay?"

Shinn nodded. "I'm fine, Rey. Next time we go into battle I'll just have to prove to Heero that he has no idea what kind of pilot I am."

Rey nodded, though Shinn thought he also saw his friend shrug. "I'm sure you will."

….

"Nice setup," said Duo as he and the other Gundam pilots followed Heero into the _Minerva_'s conference room.

It was a decent sized room for a ship like this. A large black, circular table was positioned square in the middle of it, with chairs for a dozen people sitting around it. In the center of the table and in the ceiling directly above it were a set of holographic projectors.

It had been a few hours since that tense meeting in the hangar when the Gundam pilots had first entered the _Minerva_. Duo and the others had killed time going over their mobile suits and the small data packet that Heero had sent them earlier, patiently waiting on him to prepare an actual briefing for them. Like Heero they had all changed out of their flight suits and were now wearing their typical civilian clothing.

As soon as the God of Death and the other pilots were inside he saw Heero hit a keypad on the wall, closing and locking the door behind them.

"I've already swept this room for listening devices," the Perfect Soldier said, "We can talk freely in here."

Due smirked. "So that's what you were up to while we were hanging around down in the hangar."

"I doubt it took Heero _that _long just to do a bug sweep," said Trowa.

"Are you all set for the briefing, Heero?" asked Quatre.

The Perfect Soldier nodded, and Duo saw him set the black laptop he'd been carrying down on the table. "I'm not going to log into the _Minerva's _network and use the holo-projectors; too much of a chance of them using the channel to get into my computer and access the data in there. Sorry, but I'm afraid that this will just be a narration; we'll save the visual aids for another time."

"Fine by me," said Wufei.

"Aw, man," groaned Duo, "Talk about a letdown."

"Why do you need the laptop, then?" asked Trowa.

"As a reference," Heero replied as he sat down at the table and opened up the laptop, "There's a lot we need to go over."

"We're ready whenever you are," said Quatre.

Heero nodded. "Then take a seat and get comfortable. We're going to be here for a while."

….

_I always figured he'd have one hell of a tale for us when we found him_, thought Quatre as Heero went on with his account, _but still… I never dreamed that it would be anything quite like this._

Like the other four Gundam pilots he'd patiently listened as Heero outlined everything that had happened since he had come to the Cosmic Era over two years ago. Quatre was utterly fascinated by the odyssey his friend had undergone. All the people he'd met, the factions he'd encountered, the battles he'd fought in… it was a war to rival their old conflict, even surpass it. If it were anyone else telling a story like this Quatre would've recommended them to a psyche ward, but when it was Heero Yuy doing the talking it was pretty damn hard not to take him seriously.

He knew that Heero was being honest, but at the same time Quatre could tell that his old friend was leaving something out. It took a while, but as Heero continued his story Sandrock Saladin's pilot slowly began to realize what it was.

_The Captain of the Archangel_, he mused, _Murrue Ramius… there's something between them._

It was in the way Heero spoke whenever she came up in the narrative, however fleeting, that clued Quatre in. There were very subtle signs, and if someone did not know Heero then there was very little chance that they would've picked up on it, but they were there all the same. When he spoke of the Captain's accomplishments there was the faintest hint of pride in his voice, one that never revealed itself when Heero spoke of his own deeds or those of anyone else in his story. At times he could see small signs of admiration when he spoke of her devotion to her crew and strong will. He gave subtle praise to her cunning and leadership ability, and whether Heero recognized it or not this Captain Ramius popped up more in his narrative than any other person that he had met.

If Heero wasn't ready to go into details right now at what was going on with him and Murrue Ramius that was fine with Quatre. He could pry it out of him later. Quatre did suspect though that it would ultimately make the four Gundam pilots' mission much more difficult.

_In fact_, he thought as Heero continued, _we may have been doomed to fail before we even left our world, if my hunch about the two of them is right._

Quatre lost track of the time, but he figured it must've been at least a couple of hours before he finally wound up his story. Eventually Heero closed the laptop and leaned back in his chair.

"Well," he said, "that's the gist of everything. I'll send you more comprehensive information on this world, the factions that rule it, the mobile suits, and anything else that you want to know. It'll just take me a bit of time to work it all up."

Duo whistled. "Damn… you had one hell of a ride, didn't you?"

"It's a good thing you came over here with your Gundam," said Trowa, "I doubt you would've survived your battles without Wing Zero."

"It sounds like we really missed out," said Wufei, and Quatre could detect more than a hint of envy coming from the Chinese pilot.

Heero nodded. "We could've used your help, although I'm sure you were all busy back in your world."

The way he said 'your world' rather than 'our world' was another sign to Quatre that their original mission might not have a chance of success.

Quatre nodded. "Between reconstruction and peacekeeping we've all had plenty to do. Howard and Lady Une were the ones who did most of the work on figuring out how to cross over to this world to find you."

"I figured as much," Heero replied.

"They gave us some data to show you," said Trowa, "It'll help us set up our return to our world eventually."

Heero nodded. "Send it to me later. I'll pass it on to a friend who should be able to help you with that."

"You mean 'help _us_,' don't you buddy?" said Duo.

Heero shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I'm not going back."

There was silence for a moment after that.

_Well_, thought Quatre, _that was certainly quicker than I'd expected._

"Say… say that again, buddy?" said Duo hesitantly.

"I told you," said Heero firmly, "I'm _not _going back."

"Hey!" said Duo, "The whole reason we all came out here in the first place was to bring you back!"

Heero nodded. "I appreciate the effort you put into this undertaking, and I will do everything I can to make sure that you return to your world. However, that does not change the fact that I will not be joining you."

"There are many people in our world waiting on your return," said Trowa, "They need you to help preserve the peace."

"And what about Relena, man?" said Duo, "She pushed real hard for this! She cares about you more than anyone else in our world, Heero! I thought you two had something!"

Heero sighed. "We did, but… it wasn't what you think it was. Besides… things have changed for me, Duo, more than you could possibly realize."

"Heero," said Quatre carefully, "Can you at least think about it? Please, don't dismiss this so quickly!"

"It's not like you have to make a final call on this right off the bat anyway," said Wufei, "After all, it will take quite a while to get things set up for our return. There's a lot that we need to prepare, and we need a considerable amount of resources for it."

Quatre nodded. "Wufei's right. Look, Heero, at least consider it while we work through the current situation, okay?"

Heero shook his head. "I'm sorry, Quatre, but there really is nothing for me to consider. My mind is made up, and it has been for far longer than you know."

"Damn it, man!" said Duo in frustration, "Do you have any idea how big of a pain in the ass you're being right now? Look, I get that you did a hell of a lot here while we were trying to figure out how to come after you, but this _isn't your world_, Heero! We need you back in _ours_!"

"From what Quatre said earlier it seems like you've all had no problem keeping the peace in your world without me," Heero replied, "This world needs me far more than the old one does. More to the point, I've made a new life for myself here, Duo. Regardless of my past attachments, I'm not going to abandon what I've gained here."

"Do you have any idea what this will do to Relena?" cried Duo.

Heero closed his eyes for a moment, and to Quatre it seemed like he was genuinely remorseful. "Relena's a strong woman. She'll make it without me. I think… she would understand."

"Really?" said Duo, folding his arms, "Well I sure as hell don't."

"Perhaps there's something that we're missing," said Trowa, his eyes narrowing, "Is there anything you left out of your presentation that would help explain your refusal?"

Heero nodded. "You'll see in due time."

"That's it?" said Wufei, raising an eyebrow.

Quatre held out his hands. "I think we should put the matter on hold for now. This is hardly the time to be arguing amongst ourselves. We're on a ZAFT battleship trying to conceal the fact that not only is Heero's mobile suit one that was supposed to be destroyed but that we're from another world. Until we're able to get off this ship and join up with Heero's friends in this world we need to be very careful about how we go forward."

Trowa nodded. "We need to present a united front. If the Supreme Council Chairman detects any dissent in our ranks he will exploit it."

Duo sighed. "All right, I'll drop it for now. Don't think I'm letting you off the hook just yet though, buddy. This is just a break."

"Whatever you say," Heero replied.

"So," said Wufei, "what's our next move?"

"For now, settle in," said Heero, "I spoke with the ship's XO before calling this meeting. Quarters have been arranged. I'll show you where they are after this. We'll stay with the _Minerva _for the time being and hunt down that unknown battleship from the attack on Armory One. As soon as we get the chance, though, I'll get us over to my friends. We'll be able to work out a better plan then."

Quatre smiled. "Sounds like a plan to me."

Duo shrugged. "It's something."

"It'll be enough for now," said Trowa.

"As long as we run into the enemy again, I'm good with it," said Wufei.

Quatre sighed with relief as everyone began standing up. For now he'd consider them all lucky to have averted a major crisis; that argument could've gotten a lot worse. However, he knew that they were far from out of the woods yet.

….

Leaning back in his chair, Eric 'The Wolf of the Far East' Bristow took a moment to absorb what Murrue Ramius had just told him. In his early to mid thirties, the man who had once been a ZAFT Field Marshal and the master of Siegel Clyne's growing spy network before passing his services on to Lacus Clyne had changed very little over the past two years. Tall and clean shaven with black hair and cunning brown eyes, he had traded in his old custom Field Marshal's uniform for the typical garb of a Morgenroete employee, though of course this was merely to disguise his role as an overseer of Terminal's intelligence network and one of the organization's mobile suit pilots.

"Well, now," he said, his brow furrowed in thought, "I did not see that one coming."

"You can say that again," a very familiar female voice chimed in from behind him.

He turned and smiled at the North African beauty behind him. Now twenty-seven years old, Shemei Bristow, also known as the Valkyrie, was as lovely as ever. Like him she was clad in typical Morgenroete attire, but that did little to detract from her beauty. Her lithe and athletic figure was readily apparent, and it was one that she continued to hone through both combat training and swordplay. Her silver eyes glistened with a playful light, and her long dark hair with purple highlights fell freely behind her. He reached over and held his wife's hand, savoring the feeling of her soft and smooth light brown skin.

They'd married earlier in the year, firmly convinced that after all they had endured together in the last war that they were perfect for each other. Both had fond memories of the ceremony and the honeymoon that had followed, but neither had let that distract them from their work as members of Terminal.

"So the other four Gundam pilots have finally made their way over to our world," said Shemei with a grin, "I always hoped we'd get the chance to meet them."

Eric nodded. "I hear you there. I do wish it could be under better circumstances, though."

"Indeed," said Murrue, causing the two of them to turn back to the screen, "From what Heero told me they've managed to earn the goodwill of the _Minerva's _crew and have worked out a temporary alliance, but I don't think that they can stay with them for long."

"Agreed," said Eric, "We'll have to arrange a rendezvous with them as soon as possible."

Murrue nodded. "That's part of the reason we need the _Dominion _to launch from L3 and make for the orbital Debris Belt. If things take a turn for the worse and Heero and the others need to bail from the _Minerva _then we need to make sure that they have options available."

"Well, I don't think it will take us too long to get underway," said Shemei, "Natarle's got everyone here at the resource satellite running through drills, so it's not like we got to cancel any shore leave. ZAFT and the Earth Alliance don't patrol out this way like they used to either, so we should have no problem making it to the Debris Belt without being spotted."

"We'll talk to her when we're finished here," said Eric, "How long will it take you to prep the _Archangel_?"

Murrue sighed. "Significantly longer than launching the _Dominion _will take, I'm afraid. Attaching the positron boosters takes several hours, and we'll need to head out under cover of darkness in order to minimize our risk of exposure. It's pretty late in the day now and mounting the boosters will most likely consume most of the night, so I probably won't be able to get my ship underway until tomorrow night when we have fresh cover."

"You'll get it done, Murrue," said Shemei with a smile, "You always do."

Murrue smiled in return. "Thank you, Shemei. By the way, how are things going with your new mobile suit?"

Shemei chuckled. "It's a real beast, no denying that. Still, I've got a handle on it now."

"I can't believe Heero once flew that thing," said Eric, his eyes narrowing, "or at least the original version. That System's a real monster, you know?"

Murrue nodded. "So Heero's told me. I know you two have been through a lot lately, especially with Shemei's training. Heero believes in you, and so do I, but that doesn't mean I'm not allowed to worry."

"Believe me, you're not the only one," said Eric, "I know Shemei didn't like the Judgment, but I really would've preferred that mobile suit to this one."

"No," said Shemei firmly, "this was the right move for me. Eric, Murrue, I appreciate your concern, but this is what I want. Trust me, I've got this."

Eric smiled at his wife. "Well, at the very least you know that your girls and I will be backing you up when we go into battle."

"Don't forget Natarle and La Flaga," said Shemei, smiling again.

"Speaking of the girls," said Murrue with a smirk, "I'd pay to see Lan's reaction when you break the news to her."

Both Eric and Shemei laughed.

"I'm with you there," said Shemei, "After how hot and bothered your boyfriend got her in the last war, for her to learn that his four old friends are here too… she is going to have a field day."

"Adaline and Priscilla will be right behind her," said Eric, chuckling, "though Lan will definitely have them beat for enthusiasm. Should we start placing bets on who she picks as her target?"

"Let's save the betting until we meet the pilots in person," said Murrue, "How's that sound?"

"Fine by me," said Shemei.

"Sure thing," said Eric.

"About Lan," said Murrue, her expression becoming somber, "How is she? It's been almost a year since her mother… not to mention Shanghai…"

Shemei nodded grimly. "I know. Whenever I see her she looks well, and I've still got Adaline and Priscilla keeping an eye on her, but still… when she wants to put on a front, she's good at it."

"She hasn't talked about it in quite some time," said Eric, "Although with the one year anniversary coming up that might change. It might also influence her in how she reacts when she meets Heero's friends."

"I'll watch her, Murrue," said Shemei, "Who knows? Maybe hooking up with a Gundam pilot will do her some good?"

Murrue nodded. "Yes, though I suppose that depends on which one. Well, I'll leave her to you then. Tell the girls I said hello, will you? Natarle and La Flaga as well."

Shemei smiled. "Will do, Murrue."

"We'll get things rolling on our end," said Eric, "Anything else you need from us?"

"Only for you to keep your guard up," said Murrue, "I don't know what Heero thinks is coming our way, but I'm inclined to believe him when he feels it's something big."

"As are the two of us," said Shemei, "Don't worry, Murrue. We'll be ready."

"Count on it," said Eric, "I'm sure we'll be seeing you and the others real soon."

Murrue nodded. "Good luck, and farewell."

The _Archangel's _Captain disappeared from the screen, leaving the two of them in momentary silence to mull things over.

Eric was the first to speak up. "So, they're really here… the Earth Alliance and ZAFT would be shitting themselves if they knew just who entered the playing field."

"Got that right," said Shemei with a smirk, "I know you said that Zala and the Defense Council hated Heero with a passion in the last war. I can't imagine the response four more of him will get from the big powers."

Eric smiled. "So, when are you going to break the news to the girls?"

"After we let Natarle and La Flaga in on the action," Shemei replied, "Besides, I want to be there in person when Lan and the others learn what's going on. The look on her face is going to be priceless!"

Eric smirked. "No argument there. All right, let's get to work!"

….

Sitting on a chair out in front of Reverend Malchio's orphanage in the Marshall Islands was a lovely young woman. Eighteen years of age, her appearance was positively angelic even when she wasn't decked out in full regalia. She wore a very simple white and light blue dress, which apart from two thin straps perfectly revealed her pale shoulders. Her pink hair flowed freely, falling down to her waist, and was unadorned save for a gold clip in her right bangs. Gentle and peaceful cerulean eyes watched her boyfriend play soccer with the children, and a content smile was on her face as she took it all in with the setting sun.

_He looks so happy_, thought Lacus Clyne, _If one didn't know him better they'd never imagine that he fought in the last war… and suffered so dearly._

The now eighteen-year-old Kira Yamato was clearly holding back as he kicked the ball to one of the young boys. As the Ultimate Coordinator, the product of forbidden research out at the mysterious Mendel colony at L4, the young man could've easily joined a professional team, and at a much earlier age too if he'd desired. Clad in a simple pair of black pants and a white button-up shirt, her boyfriend looked to be so at ease, which made him all the more handsome in Lacus' eye. He'd let his brown hair grow just a few centimeters longer than he'd allowed it to in the last war, but apart from that he hadn't really changed much physically over the past two years. His gentle purple eyes spoke of a sensitive and kind nature, although the events of the war had given them a more mature edge. He'd become more philosophical and contemplative since the conflict, but at heart he was still the compassionate and slightly-shy young man that Lacus had fallen in love with.

The two of them had lived a quiet life out at Reverend Malchio's orphanage since the end of the Bloody Valentine War, visiting their friends in Orb and taking part in an occasional Terminal meeting but apart from that content to watch over the children the blind spiritual leader was looking after. For an insanely popular songstress and one of the most famous pilots of the war it might seem like a considerable step down, but the two of them were more than happy with this change of pace. The funds Lacus had acquired from her singing career and continued to receive through royalties were far more than sufficient to support them, and that wasn't including her considerable inheritance from her late father.

_It was fortunate Mister Bristow was able to move father's liquid assets before Patrick Zala could freeze them and use them in his war efforts_, she thought, _They've certainly come in handy for supporting Terminal and keeping father's dream alive._

Although she currently had a hands off role in the organization, Lacus was still kept up to date on their activities thanks to her friends. They were very respectful of the support she'd given Terminal and always asked for her input whenever a major operation was being planned. That was why, though she was happily watching Kira play with the children, her mind occasionally turned towards a friend that was currently on an important mission for the organization.

_I hope Heero's doing all right_, she thought, _He's been working very hard lately. So has Murrue… I think the two of them need to take some time off soon. Perhaps I should invite them to come out here and stay with us for a few days when Heero returns. A bit of distance from operations like this one would do them some good._

She'd actually done precisely that a few times since settling in here with Kira. Murrue and Heero had always accepted her invitations, and Lacus knew that the lovely Captain was quite popular with the children. Heero had taken a bit of work; his withdrawn nature made it difficult for him to connect with kids, although he had made an effort to join them in their activities whenever he and Murrue had visited. Lacus was sure that his past experiences played a role in his issues with warming up to the children, especially a particularly painful even that he had told her about when they had reencountered each other on the _Eternal _after the fall of Orb.

"Lacus," said a familiar voice behind from behind her.

She turned and smiled at the speaker. "Reverend Malchio! Please, come out and join us!"

The blind black-haired man shook his head. "I apologize, Lacus, but you're needed inside. Miss Ramius is requesting to speak to you."

Lacus nodded, now a little worried; Murrue wouldn't be making a social call while Heero was off on a mission. "Very well. I'm coming inside."

She stood up and looked briefly over at Kira and the children before climbing up the stairs and entering the orphanage. Lacus strode quickly through the main living room and through a back door which led down into a shelter and a secure communications room.

She took a seat and smiled as she saw her friend on the screen. "Murrue, it's good to see you again!"

The lovely Captain of the _Archangel _nodded and smiled at her. "You as well, Lacus. How are things with you and Kira?"

"Going quite well, thank you for asking," Lacus replied, "He's actually outside playing with the children right now. Would like me to invite him in?"

Murrue shook her head. "Not right now, but in a little bit perhaps. Heero always said that I should ask for you first when it comes to serious Terminal matters."

Lacus nodded. "He was quite right. Murrue, what may I do for you? I know that you would not have called at a time like this unless it was important."

Murrue sighed. "I spoke to Heero awhile ago. Lacus, Armory One's been attacked."

Lacus gasped. "Oh no! Are Athrun and Cagalli okay? What about Heero and Miriallia?"

"They're fine," Murrue replied, "Cagalli was wounded, but Heero said she'll be all right."

Lacus sighed with relief. "Thank heaven…"

Murrue nodded. "I agree. Lacus, Heero was force to reveal himself in order to save the colony… and he wasn't the only one."

The songstress's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean, Murrue?"

"Lacus," said Murrue carefully, "during the course of the battle four more mobile suits intervened and aided Heero in repulsing the unknown assailants. They were Gundams, Lacus… more specifically, _the _Gundams."

Lacus' eyes widened in shock. "You mean… the other four pilots from Heero's old world?"

Murrue nodded. "The very same, Lacus. They're all on board ZAFT's new battleship right now in pursuit of the enemy. Heero thinks it's an Alliance black operations unit. They stole three of the prototype mobile suits ZAFT was developing at Armory One, though Heero destroyed two of them before they could escape."

Lacus was now very uneasy. "An Earth Alliance attack… they're trying to start another war?"

"We don't know what their ultimate objective is right now," said Murrue grimly, "and we only _think _it's an Alliance black op; we don't have concrete proof. That's why Heero and the other four Gundam pilots joined the _Minerva _to pursue the enemy. If they can capture the surviving battleship they may find the answers we need."

Lacus nodded. "I hope so."

"As do I," said Murrue, "Lacus, that's not the only reason I called you."

"What else is going on, Murrue?" she asked.

"Terminal is mobilizing," Murrue replied, "I'm preparing the _Archangel _as we speak, and Natarle's doing the same with the _Dominion_. Heero advised that we leave the _Kusanagi _and the _Eternal _out of this matter for now."

Lacus nodded. "I understand. What do you need from me?"

"To tell Kira that we need him with us," said Murrue, "I'm sorry, I know how much this time away from the field has meant to him, but Heero thinks that there is something much larger afoot here, and I want Kira flying the Freedom when the time comes."

Lacus sighed. "Murrue… are you sure you need him? Kira's so happy right now. He's kept up his skills in preparation for a day like this, I know, but still… must he fight again?"

"We don't know if we'll actually be engaging in combat yet," said Murrue carefully, "but… if we must, I know that having Kira with us would be invaluable. Please, Lacus, we need him. Everything that we fought for two years ago could be at stake here!"

Lacus nodded reluctantly. "Very well. I'll talk to him, Murrue… and I will be coming as well."

Murrue shook her head. "Lacus, you don't have to…"

"Yes, I do," said Lacus firmly, "If Kira must risk his life for the sake of the Cosmic Era again, and if you and Heero are willing to do the same, then I will do no less. I will join you on the _Archangel_, Murrue. I know that I can be of use there."

Murrue gave her a small but grateful smile. "Thank you, Lacus."

"You are most welcome, Murrue," said Lacus, returning her smile, "I'll go grab Kira right now."

….

It felt _very _good to finally get a break from the bridge. As far as Meyrin was concerned she'd had enough excitement for one day. At the time that her watch had been up there was still no sign of Bogey One, and that was fine by her. She wanted to catch them, but she also wanted to pause and catch her breath before diving into another fight.

She hadn't been able to talk to her sister since Lunamaria had brought her ZAKU Warrior back on board the _Minerva_. Meyrin was hoping to catch her in the mess, but for all she knew Lunamaria had already gone to the room they shared and was catching some shut-eye. She couldn't blame her if she was.

_After everything that's happened today_, she thought as she stifled a yawn, _I could use a little sleep myself._

In her distraction she failed to notice someone crossing her path, and she bumped right into him.

Her eyes widened as her face hit something black, and her face flushed with embarrassment as she tried to steady herself. "I'm so sorry!"

"No worries," a familiar male voice replied, and Meyrin felt her heart skip a beat, "You okay, little lady?"

_Oh, my_, she thought as she slowly raised her head to look at the person she'd hit, _Don't tell me…_

Sure enough, there was the pilot of the black mobile suit that had saved the _Minerva _earlier. He was out of his flight suit now, and Meyrin felt more heat rush to her face as she finally got a good look at him without his helmet on. His attire was rather surprising; the black pants and over-shirt and the white undershirt and collar struck looked very much like a priest's getup. He had an easygoing smile on his face, and without the helmet to restrain it his long braided tail fell down behind him.

"Hey," said the young man with concern, "You all right?"

Meyrin nodded frantically, doing her best to regain some measure of composure. What in the world was wrong with her?

"Y-yes!" she said, "I'm fine, thank you! I'm so sorry about that!"

"Easy, there," the young man replied, "I said no worries, remember? It's okay, really."

"Right, thanks," said Meyrin, giving him a nervous smile, "I… I saw you earlier. I work on the bridge… I'm in charge of communications, and you were on the screen."

"Is that so?" said the young man, "In that case, sorry about that little threat I made during the fight. Didn't want you guys backstabbing me after I'd saved your necks. No hard feelings?"

Meyrin nodded. "It's fine. No worries."

"Good," he said as he held out his hand, "Name's Duo Maxwell. What's yours?"

Her smile grew a little as she shook his hand, failing to notice the plain silver ring on one of his fingers. "Meyrin. Meyrin Hawke."

"Nice to meet you," said Duo, looking at her thoughtfully, "You look a little familiar… is that red-headed chick from down in the hangar related to you?"

Meyrin nodded. "That's my older sister, Lunamaria. She flies the red ZAKU Warrior."

"Gotcha," said Duo, "Fancy that, you two being on the same ship. I guess you two caught a lucky break."

"Yes," said Meyrin, "I was glad to be assigned to the _Minerva _with her."

Duo nodded. "Hey, are you busy right now?"

Meyrin felt her face flush red again. "Umm… no…"

Duo grinned. "In that case, you mind showing me where a guy can get a bite to eat around here? Not gonna lie, I'm starving."

Meyrin nodded and smiled again. "Sure. Actually, I… I was just about to go get some food as well, so… I'd like the company."

"I'm game," said Duo, "It's no fun eating by yourself."

With that she led him towards the _Minerva's _mess, all the while stealing glances at him and praying that he wouldn't catch her staring. She hadn't known what to expect upon actually meeting the pilot of that black mechanical Grim Reaper, but it definitely wasn't this.

_At least he's friendly_, she thought as she looked at him again, _and… pretty cute…_

She felt a brief hint of jealousy towards her sister when she remembered that Lunamaria had met him first down in the hangar bay. Her sister wouldn't have tried to make a move on him right then and there… would she?

And why did thoughts like that keep popping into her head?

"What's up?" asked Duo.

Meyrin blushed furiously at having been caught staring and frantically tried to come up with an excuse. "Um… well…. your outfit. Are you a priest?"

Duo chuckled. "Nope, I just like the getup. As an orphan I spent some time in a church back when I was a kid. There were good people there, and I guess the look kinda rubbed off on me."

Her eyes widened. "An orphan? Oh my god… I'm so sorry."

Duo shook his head. "Don't worry about it. We almost there?"

Meyrin nodded. "Yes. Right here."

She led him into the mess. It was sparsely populated at the moment, but the few crew members that were there all gave her startled looks as Meyrin guided the strange pilot over to the food. She tried to smile and hoped that she didn't look half as nervous as she felt.

"All right!" said Duo as they grabbed trays, "Let's dish up!"

It was simple military fare, but her new friend didn't seem to mind as he grabbed a sandwich, an apple, a bag of chips, and a bottle of juice. Once the two of them got their food and grabbed a table the pilot wasted no time in digging in.

"Man," he said, "I'm glad Heero was able to work out that deal with your Captain earlier. Otherwise I'd be stuck with the rations I've got on Deathscythe, and those aren't nearly as good as this."

"That's the name of your mobile suit?" asked Meyrin, "Deathscythe?"

"Well," Duo replied in between bites, "Gundam Deathscythe Omega's the full name. Pretty sweet machine, eh?"

Meyrin nodded. "It's impressive… and pretty scary."

"That's the idea," said Duo as he took another bite, "A scared enemy is easier to take out. Plus it looks pretty badass, eh?"

"Yes," said Meyrin, "and it has Mirage Colloid."

Duo shook his head. "No it doesn't."

Meyrin was confused. "But it can cloak! That's what Mirage Colloid does!"

Duo nodded. "Yes, it can cloak, but it uses a different system."

Meyrin's eyes widened. "Really? What kind?"

"Sorry, little lady," said Duo with a smirk, "Afraid I gotta keep that a secret from you."

Meyrin looked down. "I see."

"Hey, don't be like that," said Duo, and he reached over the table to pat her on the shoulder, "Look, you seem like a nice girl, so it's not personal, okay? I just don't want my buddy's secrets falling into the wrong hands. I know the other guys feel the same way about their Gundams. It's not that we got anything against you and your friends, but we gotta protect ourselves too."

Meyrin smiled. _At least he's being nice about it._

"Okay," she said, "I understand."

She let him dig into his food and tried to do the same, but Meyrin was now distracted by all the thoughts running through her head. What kind of secrets did Deathscythe Omega hold? How could it cloak without Mirage Colloid technology? Where was Duo from? What had happened to his family?

She doubted she would get answers to those questions anytime soon.

….

Lunamaria sighed as she entered the hangar. She knew she really should've been getting some sleep right about now, but she wanted to check in on her mobile suit before she turned in. Besides, she also wanted to take another look at the five new mobile suits that had landed in the _Minerva _earlier today. Yes, Heero Yuy had warned that the machines were primed to blow if anyone got too close without the supervision of the pilots, but there was nothing wrong with admiration from a distance, was there? It would also be a good distraction from her friend's earlier stupidity.

"Damn it, Shinn," she muttered under her breath, "You make it way too easy for people to get under your skin."

What the hell had he been thinking, picking a fight with Heero Yuy? From what Rey had told her the Demon Lord of Avalon had been critiquing his performance in the battle, and while Lunamaria could understand Shinn getting irritated about that she didn't see it as something to throw a punch over. Besides, she had to admit that Shinn could use a little criticism.

_At the academy the instructors were always praising his talent_, she thought, _and yeah, he's got a lot of it. More than me, and I've got no problem admitting that. Still, he's not perfect. He's way too impulsive… I guess it's fitting that his mobile suit is _called _Impulse. If he could keep a cool head he'd be a better pilot. A few of the instructors said as much back then, but that was always secondary to the admiration for his abilities._

A familiar voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "Hey, Luna! What's up?"

She smiled and waved at the speaker. "Nothing much, Yolan. Just here to check up on my ZAKU."

Yolan chuckled. "You're not the only one."

Lunamaria raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Yolan jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "I mean that guy over there."

Looking past him, Lunamaria was surprised to see the Chinese pilot from earlier floating not too far from her mobile suit, his eyes narrowed and arms folded as he studied it. He'd ditched the black flight suit from before and now wore simple white pants and a blue tank top, while strapped to his waist was both a pistol and the sword from earlier.

"What's up with him?" she asked.

Yolan shrugged. "Beats me. He was over by his mobile suit until a few minutes ago. Then he started wandering around."

Her eyes narrowed as she went over towards the man, vaguely remembering his name from before. "You're Chang Wufei, right?"

A small nod was his only answer.

"So," she said, "you get to look at our machines but we can't look at yours? Double standard, much?"

"We never said you couldn't _look _at our Gundams," he replied calmly, "As long as you do so with your eyes and from a distance I have no problem with you looking at Nataku."

Lunamaria was puzzled. "Nataku? I thought you said your mobile suit was the Gundam Altron Custom."

"It's both," said Wufei.

"That doesn't make any sense," said Lunamaria.

Wufei shrugged but gave no real answer.

Deciding that a different approach might work better, she held out her hand. "Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot earlier. I'm Lunamaria Hawke. You can call me Luna for short if you want."

To her pleasant surprise the young man accepted her hand with a brief shake. "Call me Wufei."

_Well_, she thought with a smile, _this is progress._

"So," she said as the two of them turned back to the red ZAKU Warrior, "what do you think of my mobile suit?"

"Not bad for a mass production model," he said, "It seems pretty versatile."

Lunamaria nodded, eager to elaborate. "You bet it is! This is just the basic form. Most of the time I actually use a Gunner pack. I'm pretty good at long range, you know."

"If that's your specialty then why weren't you using it today?" asked Wufei with a raised eyebrow, "A pilot should fight with the setup they're most proficient in."

Lunamaria sighed. "I didn't really have a choice in the matter. The Captain ordered me to launch in the basic form because at the time we were still inside the colony. The Gunner ZAKU's primary weapon is too powerful to be used in that environment; there was way too much potential for devastating collateral damage, and if any of my shots had hit the central shaft I could've destabilized Armory One."

To her relief she saw Wufei nod in agreement. "A reasonable assessment. In that case, though, why didn't you utilize one of the other packs like the white mobile suit did?"

Lunamaria shrugged. "They just had me launch plain. I don't know why; I don't get to pick and choose the orders I'm given. Besides, I actually have trouble controlling the Blaze pack with those additional thrusters. As for the Slash pack, it's designed for close combat and that's not my strongest area. Maybe the Captain knew that and decided the basic form would be best for that situation."

"Perhaps," he said, "Was that your first battle?"

Lunamaria nodded shakily. "Yeah… it was."

"I could tell," said Wufei, "Your moves were sloppy."

Lunamaria glared at him. "Well excuse me for not being perfect on my first time out! I bet you weren't such a hotshot in your first battle!"

To her surprise, rather than get heated or offer some rude reply, she just saw him close his eyes for a moment. "Nataku…"

_There he goes with that name again_, she thought, _What gives? And what's that got to do with what we're talking about now?_

When he opened his eyes he turned to her, and she was caught off guard by his piercing gaze. "Leave the battlefield while you can. Someone like you will be destroyed by it all too soon."

Lunamaria folded her arms. "I can handle myself! I just need to build up my skills! Don't think you can just walk in here and tell me to 'leave the battlefield'. I'm not a coward! I'm not going to run away!"

"It's not cowardly to recognize that you're out of your league," he replied calmly, "This isn't where you belong."

"That's not your call to make!" Lunamaria snapped at him, "It's mine! Who the hell do you think you are?"

"Someone who understands combat far more than you do," said Wufei with a glare, "Given that I saved your life I would think that my advice would carry weight."

"It would if you weren't a jerk!" said Lunamaria.

"There's nothing wrong with an honest evaluation," said Wufei.

"Well I don't think you're being honest!" Lunamaria shot back, "I think you're just afraid of a strong woman on the battlefield! Threatens the little boys-only club you've got going with your friends. How's _that _for an honest evaluation?"

"You're being irrational!" Wufei quipped.

Lunamaria smirked at that. "Nice to see that I can get under your skin too. You just watch the next time we go into battle, Wufei. You'll see that I can handle the battlefield just like you!"

"Then don't come crying to me when you get in over your head!" growled Wufei.

"I _won't_!" she replied as she turned around, "I've got my own friends to help me out! Goodbye!"

_Damn it_, she silently fumed, _I said earlier that it was too easy for people to get under Shinn's skin, then there I go and get in a fight with that guy! I mean, okay, neither of us threw a punch or anything like that, but still…_

She knew it was important to keep calm. After all, they would need the help of Wufei and the other Gundam pilots when they met the enemy in battle again. Whether she liked him or not, she would have to work with him.

_I just hope those other four pilots aren't like him…_

….

Access to the _Minerva's _officers' lounge was, as the name implied, restricted to the upper echelons of the warship's crew and visiting dignitaries. Heero Yuy doubted that he and his friends would qualify under the traditional sense of the term 'visiting dignitaries'; well armed guests and potential security risks would probably be a better way to put it. As such, he doubted he was really officially welcome in the ship's officers' lounge. However, to a Gundam pilot, 'restricted access' simply meant 'come back with lock picks'.

So here he was, having hacked his way through the small security panel outside the lounge, enjoying the view of the passing stars. He'd taken his travel bag to the quarters he'd been given a little bit ago and was now taking a little time to relax and contemplate the current situation.

_As far as I know my little scuffle with Shinn has been the only major confrontation we've encountered with the crew so far since that meeting down in the hangar_, he mused, _All things considered I'd say we're doing all right so far. We'll see how things play out going forward._

Events were already in motion beyond the attack on Armory One and the subsequent pursuit of the warship ZAFT had labeled Bogey One. If Heero's calculations were right, by now Murrue would've contacted their secret base out at L3 and Natarle would be prepping the _Dominion _for launch. Back in Orb Murrue would be working with Erica to get the positron boosters mounted on the _Archangel _and rounding up the ship's crew.

He knew what his friends and allies were up to, but the moves of the other players on the board were more difficult to determine. On ZAFT's side Heero was sure that by now reinforcements were on their way out to Armory One while outlying patrols were sweeping space for any sign of Bogey One. Their actions beyond that were a more open question. Chairman Durandal must've issued new instructions to the PLANTs' diplomatic and intelligence services along with the military, but it was hard to predict what those orders might be. The Earth Alliance was currently an unknown factor, but if Heero's suspicion about the attack being one of their black operations then that left a whole host of possibilities on the table.

If Bogey One and the force that had struck Armory One were unofficially part of the Earth Alliance, would the government be marshalling another secret force to back up the battleship? Was Bogey One engaged in a definite retreat, or would it eventually reveal itself in an attempt to lure the _Minerva _into a trap? If it would be reinforced, how many vessels would be devoted to backing it up?

"Too many questions," he murmured, "and not enough answers."

He heard the lounge door open behind him, and he didn't need to turn around to know who it was; he could see their reflection in the window behind him.

"I don't believe we ever extended you an invitation to this room," said Chairman Durandal as he floated in with two of his aides behind him.

"You assume that I needed one," Heero replied, still not turning around.

"Well, Talia did provide me with the access code for here a little while ago," said the Chairman, and Heero could see his reflection smirking, "To my knowledge she never gave that to you."

"She didn't," said Heero, "and it wouldn't matter if she changed it after this; I could still get in."

He heard the Chairman chuckle. "I don't doubt it. You've proven that you can get in to just about anywhere when you put your mind to it. Aprilius One was a standout example."

"Sorry about the mess I made back there," said Heero, "You didn't exactly extend me your hospitality."

"Well, it didn't take us too long to clean up the physical damage," said the Chairman, "and you were surprisingly careful with our central shaft. I suppose I should thank you for that; it would've been easy for you to rip the capital colony apart."

"I don't target civilians," said Heero, his eyes narrowing.

"For which the citizens of the PLANTs are profoundly grateful, myself included," Durandal replied before turning to his aides, "Please, leave us for now. I'd like to speak to Heero Yuy in private."

"Sir," said one of them, "are you sure?"

"With all due respect, sir…" began the other.

"That's enough," said the Chairman, raising his hand, "I imagine that if Heero Yuy wanted to kill me neither of you would be able to stop him anyway. Please, wait outside."

Heero waited for the two men to leave the lounge before finally turning around to face the Chairman.

"You seem pretty confident given my reputation," said the Gundam pilot.

"Your past actions back up your earlier statement," Durandal replied as he floated forward, "Patrick Zala tried to paint you as a threat to the PLANTs, but the fact was you never once targeted a colony beyond your intrusion of Aprilius One. Whether it was against the Earth Alliance or ZAFT you never once targeted civilians. You remain a mystery in many aspects, Heero Yuy, but by this point I do believe we've at least established that you do have certain principles."

"I could've changed over the past two years," said Heero, meeting the Chairman's gaze, "You could be taking a major risk with your life."

Durandal smiled. "Well, as they say, fortune favors the bold."

Heero turned back to the window as the Chairman joined him at it. "What do you want?"

"To simply converse," said Durandal, "I was sincere down in the hangar when I said that it was an honor to meet you in person. Believe it or not I've always hoped I'd have the chance to speak with you. There is no figure from the last war as singularly fascinating as you."

"I don't do small talk," said Heero, "and you're not here to 'simply converse' as you put it. You want something more."

Durandal smiled. "You're a blunt one, aren't you? Quite refreshing when compared to the honeyed words and endless circling I'm typically forced to engage in back in the homeland."

"Now you know why I typically don't get along with politicians," Heero quipped dryly.

Durandal nodded. "If I had experiences like yours under my belt I imagine I would be wary of anyone from the ruling classes, as it were. Not all of us are simply in it for power and money, you know."

"I'm well aware of that," Heero replied, "You've yet to prove that you're not one of them."

"A task that I suspect will be quite difficult with you," said Durandal, "although I do relish a challenge."

"Then I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself," Heero deadpanned.

The two of them were silent for a moment before Heero spoke again. "Why was Armory One so lightly defended?"

"For a single colony I believe it was adequately defended," Durandal replied, "At least against a force that would not have been employing a Mirage Colloid-equipped battleship. Had a conventional fleet been mustered to attack we would've been aware of it well in advance of an actual assault and would've had time to marshal sufficient reinforcements. Even a surprise attack could've been warded off; again, I believe the major factor in why we could not do that today without your help was due to the cloaking capabilities of Bogey One."

"What about internal security?" said Heero, his eyes narrowing, "From what I caught from Armory One's radio traffic it sounds like the intruders were simply able to fence-hop and plant a diversionary bomb before storming the key hangar, slaughtering everyone inside, and taking the prototypes."

"I will convene a formal commission to look into the matter," said Durandal, "Clearly our internal security procedures require reevaluation."

"If Armory One weren't constructed out at L4 you could've avoided this whole fiasco," Heero pressed, "Why build a new colony devoted to advanced weapons development out there rather than within the secure environment of L5?"

"It's part of a pilot program," Durandal replied without missing a beat, "The Earth Alliance has abandoned all claims to L4, and completely pulled out during the Bloody Valentine War. They've conducted a handful of salvage operations out there but by and large the Junk Guild is the main party combing through the debris, and we have engaged them in a few contracts out there since the end of the war. I felt that it would be an ideal location to start up a new colony city."

"So you're planning on eventually having at least ten colonies out there?" asked Heero.

Ten was the standard figure for a PLANT colony grouping within L5. These groupings were referred to as cities, with Aprilius One being both the PLANT capital and the capital of Aprilius City.

"Yes," said Durandal, smiling again, "and their construction would actually be easier since we could use recycled materials from the L4 debris field in addition to newly forged components. Call it a hybrid approach. Armory One proved the feasibility of such an approach; our technicians rated the refined metals to be structurally sound and equal to what is used in the standard construction of PLANT colonies."

"Why lead the pilot program with a colony devoted to weapons development and manufacture?" asked Heero, studying the Chairman carefully, "Would all ten colonies follow Armory One's lead in their specialization?"

"To a lesser extent," Durandal replied, "Armory One is intended to be the center of the arms industry in that area. While future colonies would have their own facilities to supplement and support Armory One's capacity they would also put more emphasis on other crucial economic areas like agriculture, consumer goods and civilian scientific research."

"Ambitious," said Heero cautiously, "and apparently not well known. It's the first time that I've heard of this program at any rate."

"Yes, well, we wanted to get Armory One off the ground before inaugurating the broader program," said Durandal, "The full plan is known only to the Supreme Council and a handful of advisors and technical experts. We're going to give Armory One more time with its own operations before going public with the wider program. We will need to make the proper diplomatic arrangements with the Earth Alliance, at the very least; if they did not fight us on Armory One they would certainly take issue with a full Coordinator colony city at L4."

"It almost sounds like you're provoking them," said Heero, meeting the Chairman's gaze, "In fact, one could say that the whole exercise with constructing Armory One and using it as the launching point for the _Minerva _and the Second Stage mobile suits appears to be designed to goad the Earth Alliance into some form of aggression. Giving it a relatively light patrol screen given its importance combined with the sloppy internal security would almost be like putting a cherry on top of a very appetizing sundae."

Durandal's eyes narrowed. "You make it sound like I _wanted _the colony to be attacked… and that you think the Earth Alliance was the one that made the strike."

"It makes for an interesting thought exercise, doesn't it?" asked Heero, carefully watching for how the Chairman would react next.

There was a moment of tense silence before the Chairman chuckled. "Yes, I suppose it does. You have a very active imagination, Heero Yuy."

"Considering a wide variety of possible scenarios makes one better able to react to events," Heero replied.

"Quite so," said the Chairman, "Have you ever considered a career as an intelligence analyst? I think you'd be as adept at that occupation as you currently are as a mobile suit pilot."

"A desk job's not really something I'm interested in," said Heero.

Durandal smiled. "Yes, for a man like you, I suppose that would be the case."

Heero decided to take the conversation in a different direction. "How long will you be on board the _Minerva_?"

"I'm not entirely sure," said Durandal, "Obviously I want Talia to pursue the enemy and bring them to justice for the attack on Armory One, but at the same time I'm well aware that my position as Supreme Council Chairman means it is not proper for me to remain on board this ship during such a hunt. However, it is difficult to arrange a departure for myself and Lady Cagalli without potentially disrupting the _Minerva's _pursuit of Bogey One. I'm sure we'll be able to coordinate a transfer with the fleet at some point in the future, but for now it would appear I'm stuck with this ship."

"You seem less bothered by the prospect than other politicians might be," said Heero.

Durandal chuckled. "Yes, well, unlike other politicians I don't mind the chance to get out of the halls of power on occasion. There's something refreshing about being out in the field like this, even exhilarating. I can certainly see why individuals like you might choose to walk this path rather than play it safe on the home front."

"Don't assume you know me," said Heero coolly.

Durandal nodded. "Fair enough. Even two years after the war you remain an enigma."

"A trait that I find to be valuable," said Heero, "It keeps my enemies guessing."

"It almost seems like you count me among them," Durandal replied with a smirk.

"Not yet," Heero replied, "but that can change."

"I understand your reluctance to trust me," said Durandal, "especially given that you fought against both ZAFT and the Earth Alliance in the last war. However, I do wish that you would consider treating our current partnership as more than just an alliance of convenience."

"If you think I'll actually join ZAFT then you're a worse judge of character than I thought," said Heero, his eyes narrowing.

"You misunderstand," said Durandal, "I don't want you to formally join our ranks. Informally we could still accomplish a great deal if we worked together in the pursuit of goals beyond simply hunting down Bogey One."

"What sort of goals?" asked Heero carefully.

"Long-term stability for the Earth Sphere," said Durandal with a smile, "You said earlier that the paramilitary group you're operating with is acting in the name of preserving peace. We have a mutual interest."

_I wouldn't be so sure about that_, thought Heero, _I don't know how you plan to achieve your 'long-term stability', but I doubt it's through methods I would approve of._

"So you're not just a politician," he said cautiously, "You're a visionary."

"A practical visionary," said Durandal with a hint of pride, "My goals are quite realistic, Heero Yuy, and achievable."

"Is that so?" asked Heero, "Even with the attack on Armory One?"

"We adapt to circumstances," said Durandal, "As a soldier I'm sure you can appreciate the sentiment."

Heero nodded. "I can. I can also tell when someone's trying to play me."

"Hardly 'play you', as you put it," said Durandal, "My offer is sincere, and you would be an invaluable partner."

"_Partner_?" asked Heero, "Or _asset_? There's a distinct difference."

"Well," said Durandal, "given your particular talents I would admit that you would be acting far more in the field than I would, but the fulfillment of my vision would be worth the risk on your part, I assure you."

"And what is that _vision_?" asked Heero pointedly.

"A better world," said Durandal with a smile, "One where men like Patrick Zala and Muruta Azrael could never rise to power again. Isn't that the kind of world you're fighting for?"

Heero shook his head. "You have no idea what I'm really fighting for, and I'm not inclined to tell you either. Find someone else to serve as your pawn, Durandal. As far as I'm concerned our partnership will remain a temporary one… and I can always cut it short if I think it suits my interests."

"You're being short sighted," said Durandal, his expression hardening, "That's not what I expected from a man like you, Heero Yuy."

"That's because you don't really know me," said Heero as he turned around and headed for the exit, "and you never will."

….

"You know," said Miriallia as the door to Heero's quarters shut behind her, "it's a good thing Captain Ramius has so much faith in you. A lesser woman might get the wrong idea about me being alone in her boyfriend's bedroom."

"And you're lucky Dearka holds you in such high regard," Heero replied as the two of them went over to the small table nearby, "and that I told Murrue that you were on this ship, which means that by now Dearka knows you're here as well."

Miriallia breathed a sigh of relief. "So he knows I'm safe. Thank you."

"Anytime," Heero replied as the two of them sat down.

It was difficult for Miriallia to be able to actually meet with Heero without compromising her cover as an independent journalist. Heero had very carefully approached her not too long ago, and now here they were in his cabin. Looking around, Miriallia was impressed with the lodgings.

"These are officer quarters," she said, "I didn't think ZAFT would give you such preferential treatment after having the displeasure of fighting you in the last war."

"Perhaps," Heero replied with a smirk, "but their need for my help now outweighs past animosity. I imagine the Captain ordered her XO to throw this in to influence me… or the Chairman instructed him to."

"Do the other four have the same accommodations?" she asked.

Heero shook his head. "They're split into two rooms. Still, it's room and board so they're not going to complain."

Miriallia smirked. "I never knew that the Gundam pilot slogan was 'We'll fight for food'. I seem to recall you and Captain Ramius reaching a similar agreement when you first met us."

"Considerably different circumstances," said Heero, "and I was much more cooperative with Murrue."

Miriallia nodded. "Right. So, what's up?"

"You don't know all the details of my past," said Heero, "Murrue's the only one that I've given a full account of my war before coming to the Cosmic Era. That being said, I know you are aware of a few details."

Miriallia smiled. "Yeah, like how you and four other boys went up against the might of the world. Knowing that and seeing those new Gundams today… well, it wasn't too hard to figure out who those four pilots are that showed up here."

Heero nodded. "Good. That'll make things easier."

"I take it they're here to bring you back," said Miriallia, "Have you told them 'no' yet?"

"Yes," Heero replied, "though they still think that with time they can convince me otherwise."

Miriallia laughed. "I guess you didn't tell them about your relationship with Captain Ramius yet."

"I talked it over with Murrue earlier," said Heero, "and we both agreed it would be better to tell them when they meet her in person."

Miriallia nodded. "I'm sure it will. So, what do you need from me?"

"Your report, first," said Heero, "You were inside Armory One for about a week before the attack. What did you see?"

"Well," she said, "they gave the press corps a tour of both the shipyard that held the _Minerva_ and several of the surrounding military facilities. That being said, I doubt I know anything about the battleship or the mobile suits that you don't already know."

"Don't worry about that," said Heero, "What was your impression of the colony itself?"

Miriallia took a moment to think before answering. "Well, with the launch ceremony coming up there was definitely an uptick in activity. Things were pretty lively from what I saw. You couldn't walk five meters without running into men and women in ZAFT uniforms. Still…"

"What is it?" asked Heero, his eyes narrowing.

"There were a lot of soldiers," said Miriallia carefully, "but that didn't necessarily translate to high security. They seemed pretty relaxed, and it's just a guess right now, but I think most of them were green. You'd think a colony developing new weapons would have more veteran troops for security."

"You said the press corps got a tour of military facilities besides the shipyard," said Heero, "Did that include the section that the infiltrators attacked?"

Miriallia nodded. "Yes. In fact, yesterday they even gave us a sneak peak at the Abyss, Chaos, and Gaia. I'm no expert, but when I was looking around there security didn't seem to be very tight. I think you could've infiltrated that facility with no effort."

"So do I," said Heero, "and the enemy certainly had no trouble with it."

"Who do you think they are?" asked Miriallia.

"I have no proof," said Heero grimly, "but my money's on Alliance black ops."

Miriallia shuddered. "That's what I was thinking too. _Typhoon_-class destroyers, Dagger Ls, a Mirage Colloid-equipped battleship… no way that this was a bunch of renegades, though I'm sure the Alliance will spin it as such."

"Which is why we need to capture that battleship," said Heero, "Getting access to its computers is the only way that we can prove the Earth Alliance's involvement."

Miriallia nodded. "I get that, but… do we really want to? Don't get me wrong, I want them to pay for what they did too, but… if we conclusively prove to the world that the Earth Alliance attacked Armory One, their actions would be considered an act of war. The PLANTs would have no choice but to respond with force."

Heero nodded. "I know. That being said… war might be coming regardless of our actions with regards to that battleship."

Miriallia raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Before our meeting here," said Heero, "I had an encounter with Chairman Durandal in the officers' lounge."

Miriallia's eyes widened. "Really? What happened?"

"We talked for a while," said Heero, "and he tried to recruit me."

"He wanted you to join _ZAFT_?" said Miriallia, "He's out of his mind!"

Heero shook his head. "It wasn't an offer for me to join ZAFT, but of a long-term informal alliance. He said he had a vision for long-term stability in the Earth Sphere and that I could help him make it happen."

"What did you say?" asked Miriallia.

"I turned him down," Heero replied, "He thought we were like-minded people; I told him he didn't know me."

Miriallia smiled. "Well, you're right about that."

Heero nodded. "Still, the way he was talking does concern me. It's just a hunch for now, but I don't think the Earth Alliance is the only superpower with plans in motion."

Miriallia's eyes narrowed. "You think Durandal's got something up his sleeve. Any idea what?"

"Only speculation for now," said Heero.

"Your speculation's been pretty good in the past," said Miriallia, "Hit me with it."

Heero nodded. "Miriallia, I know the Wolf's been having you monitor international media in addition to your other duties. What have they been saying about Armory One?"

Miriallia was a bit taken aback by that line of questioning, but she went along with it. "It depends on the news network. Atlantic Federation ones have called it anything from 'questionable' to 'evidence of ZAFT's imperial ambitions', though only the more hardcore outlets use phrasing like that. Eurasian and East Asian networks have followed a milder tone. The Orb Union's on the fence, acknowledging the right of the PLANTs to build new colonies and that the Earth Alliance has let go of its previous claims to L4 since the war, but at the same time pointing out its potential to raise tensions. That is one of the reasons why Lady Cagalli was visiting today, after all."

"What about PLANT news sources?" asked Heero.

"Mostly supportive, though there has been some criticism," said Miriallia, "The networks most favorable to the current administration have more or less proclaimed it 'the latest jewel in the PLANTs' crown', though most anchors don't go quite that far. Still, from all indications they and the broader PLANT population are fully behind the endeavor."

"I see…" said Heero.

Something was definitely on his mind, and Miriallia wanted in on the action. "Does any of that mean anything to you?"

"I think Durandal's got his homeland's media right where he wants them; going along with the administration's public policy while in private he believes something else entirely," said Heero, "Conventional wisdom would view the construction of Armory One as a major accomplishment for the Chairman's administration, but I don't think Durandal sees it as a crown jewel… at least, not in the normal sense of the term."

"What are you talking about?" asked Miriallia.

"When I was talking to the Chairman in the lounge," Heero replied, "he mentioned that Armory One was just the start of a larger colonization program, with the full plan only known to the Supreme Council and a handful of others. The Earth Alliance's reaction to Armory One's construction was critical but relatively mild all things considered; an entire colony city at L4 would merit a much stronger response."

Miriallia's eyes widened. "I'll say. Hell, the Alliance Navy might even try to blockade the site if they knew that was Durandal's long-term plan!"

"Sending tensions through the roof," said Heero, "and making it much more likely that a new war would break out. They bit early, but it still might play to Durandal's advantage."

"What do you mean?" asked Miriallia.

"I don't think Durandal sees Armory One as just another feather in his cap," said Heero grimly, "He sees it as _bait_, and the Alliance seems to have taken it. The light patrol screen, loose internal security, mostly green troops, the development of new mobile suits and an advanced battleship… that's an almost irresistible target."

"You make it sound like Durandal _wants _another war," said Miriallia nervously.

"I don't know for sure _what _he wants," said Heero, "I think he was telling the truth about seeking long-term stability for the Earth Sphere, but I don't believe he intends to seek it through traditional diplomacy."

"So what do we do?" asked Miriallia.

"We play our cards close to the chest for now," said Heero, "I want you to keep an eye on the crew and the Chairman if you can. I'll get in touch with Murrue again and tell her what we've gone over. Whatever's going on, we're in the middle of something big, and we have to plan our next move carefully."

"Anything else?" asked Miriallia.

Heero nodded. "Get some rest if you can. I think you're going to need it."

….

Talia sighed with relief as the bridge door closed behind her. The day still was not over yet, but it already felt like so much more time had passed since the attack on Armory One. So much had happened in the span of mere hours, and she was absolutely exhausted. Finally her watch was over, and she could get some much needed rest. It was fortunate for her that she kept some food in her quarters; she didn't think she had the energy to go to the mess right now.

_I haven't had a day this long since our campaigns in the last war_, she thought as she made her way to her room, _I just hope everyone else is doing all right._

All things considered she knew that her crew had performed well for their first battle. Sure, Shinn's outbursts and the deaths of two of her pilots made it far from perfect, but it could've gone much worse. Of course, were it not for the arrival of their five heavily armed guests, it _would _have gone much worse.

_I never thought that I would end up playing host to the Demon Lord of Avalon_, she mused, _let alone four of his associates with their own demonic mobile suits. If this is fate's idea of a joke it's in very poor taste._

There had still been no sign of Bogey One at the time that she had left the bridge. She could only hope that when she awoke later that there would be some good news on that front, although with the ship's Mirage Colloid system she had her doubts. It was pointless to worry about that for now though; she needed to rest, not to grapple with things beyond her control.

"Finally a reprieve, Talia?" said a familiar voice.

Only one person on the _Minerva _would call her by her first name, and as she turned around she saw him behind her.

"Chairman Durandal," she said, "Where are your aides?"

He smiled at her. "I ordered them to get some food and rest. I hardly need their assistance right now anyway. Please, Talia, there's no need to stand on ceremony when it's just the two of us."

Talia nodded. "Very well… Gilbert."

"I presume you're heading to your quarters for a well deserved rest?" he asked, "Would you care for an escort?"

Talia smiled. "It's not like I could turn you down."

"You could if you choose to," Durandal replied, "I would not use my authority to coerce you in a personal matter, Talia. If you wish me to go, please say the word."

Talia shook her head. "No, I don't mind. Actually, I welcome it."

With that the two of them headed off through the ship's corridors.

"I must say, I have missed this," said Durandal, "A simple stroll like this, with you. It brings back memories."

Talia nodded. "It does. Can anything be simple now, though, Gilbert? You are the Supreme Council Chairman, after all."

Durandal chuckled. "Yes, that does seem to throw a wrench in things wherever I go. Still, between us I believe we can have some simplicity."

_Can we really?_, she thought, old memories stirring in her mind, _The way things ended between us, and what's happened since…_

She decided it was time to give voice to something that had been bothering her for quite some time now. "Gilbert… why was I chosen to command the _Minerva_?"

"I would think that'd be obvious, Talia," he replied with a smile, "You're a talented and experienced commander. Your record is exemplary and you've more than proven your loyalty and discipline."

"I would like to think so," she said carefully, "but… Gilbert, you know as well as I do how the fleet promotes and reassigns its Captains. My elevation to this position was… not traditional."

"I'm well aware of typical ZAFT procedures and the customs of its officers," said Durandal, "and most of the time they serve a useful purpose. However, at times one must recognize when they pose an unnecessary obstacle and move to circumvent them. Besides, the process that you're referring to is more informal than formal; there's more room for exceptional action with exceptional individuals."

Talia smiled and tried very hard to keep from blushing. "I always knew you were a natural for politics. Your silver tongue serves you well."

Durandal chuckled. "Yes, I've found that flattery can open many doors and smooth many roads, though I would never presume to sway you with honeyed words alone. Please, Talia, rest assured that I would not heap false praise upon you; I truly do believe you deserve to command the _Minerva_."

"Enough to interfere in ZAFT's reassignment and promotion system?" she asked with a smirk.

"I wouldn't call it _interference_," Durandal replied smoothly, "_Exerting influence _would be a better way to put it. Let's just say I opened their eyes to the right decision and nudged them in the proper direction."

She looked around furtively, but thankfully no one else was in sight. "You do realize that this will seriously damage my reputation as Captain if you reveal your… _influence_."

Durandal nodded. "Fortunately I'm quite discrete, Talia. You know that very well."

"For that I am thankful," said Talia, "I always did like that about you."

Durandal smiled knowingly. "Just that, Talia?"

Talia could feel herself blushing. "Are you really going to make me play this game, Gilbert?"

Durandal shook his head but was still smiling. "Make you? Never, Talia. To quote a certain Transylvanian, 'Enter freely and of your own will.'"

Talia smiled with him. "You always did have a thing for classical literature… another quality that I liked about you."

"To appreciate and understand the works of past masters is to delve into our own souls and come to new self-realizations," Durandal replied, "All that we have built, whether it be structures or culture, must pay its due to those who came before."

"Your philosophical side never got old, either," said Talia, and she was surprised that her tone had become almost wistful, "Those nights that we spent out late in the parks, talking and pondering… I truly did enjoy that."

An almost devious smirk appeared on his face. "Indeed… and they always led to a stirring encounter back home."

Now the heat was rushing full bore to her face. "Gilbert, please... not out here."

"Very well," he replied, "but how about in there?"

She was startled to realize that they had already reached her quarters. Talia turned back to Durandal and was surprised to find that he was now _much _closer to her.

"This past year and a half that I've been Supreme Council Chairman," he said, his voice almost a whisper, "has been both a rewarding and a trying experience. Talking about the past like this with you takes me back to simpler times, ones that I recall quite fondly. If you don't mind, I would certainly like to get further… reacquainted, Talia."

Talia could feel her heart racing in her chest as she felt Durandal's breath on her face. By rights she shouldn't even be considering what she was now. It had been a _very _long day, and she was in dire need of rest…

…but there was more than one way to recover from the burdens of duty and command.

"Gilbert," she said softly, "Can I still count on your… discretion?"

He nodded. "Of course, Talia. Your reputation's not the only one at stake, after all."

She was still hesitant. "This… this can't have a greater meaning, Gilbert. A ZAFT Captain and the head of government… it can't go far, you know that."

"A hard but true reality," he replied, "It will mean whatever you wish it to mean, Talia."

She nodded and opened the door. "I'll hold you to that, Gilbert."

"Of course," said Durandal, his smile growing.

Her lips met his as she led him inside and the door closed behind them.

….

Smoothing out a wrinkle on his black and grey uniform, Colonel Nazara waited patiently at his desk while a secure communications link was established. He glanced over at his bed while he did so, smirking at the disheveled sheets and the fresh memory of what had disturbed them not too long ago.

_She resisted more than usual_, he mused, _Auel and Sting's deaths may have had something to do with that. Still, the sedative worked, and once the doctors are through with adjusting her memories those two might as well have never existed as far as she'll be concerned. Next time Stella should be more pliant…_

He was forced to remove the cruel smirk from his face as the connection made it through and the monitor shifted. It was time to make his report, and the party he was reporting to would not be pleased at his delay.

The man who appeared on the screen looked calm and collected, but if past experience was anything to go by Nazara knew that the façade would fall apart once he delivered his news. Lord Djibril, the head of the secret society of industrialists and plutocrats called LOGOS that ruled the Atlantic Federation and influenced the broader Earth Alliance from the shadows, did not take ill tidings with grace. His appearance almost seemed to be emblematic of his capricious nature, with cold silver-blue eyes and hair emphasizing the cruel and cold part of his personality while the garish yellow and purple suit hinted at a much more volatile side.

Nazara had hoped to lead the conversation, but his master beat him to the punch. "You're late, Colonel."

Nazara lowered his head in his closest approximation of a contrite bow. "A thousand pardons, Lord Djibril. My delay was caused by the time and effort it took to ensure that we had eluded pursuit."

"I assume that you are clear of Armory One?" he said.

The Colonel nodded. "We are, and the Mirage Colloid system remains engaged. Our comm link is secure, and the signal has been routed through at least a score of satellites. It will take the enemy quite some time to trace the signal, and far more to even try and decrypt it."

Djibril smiled. "Excellent. I'm sure you laid waste to the enemy thanks to the _Girty Lue's _cloaking device. It's the perfect tool for a surprise attack like ours."

Nazara nodded, forcing a smile that he knew would not last once the report got under way in earnest. "Quite so, Lord Djibril. Our opening strike was quite effective thanks to it."

Djibril leaned back, his smile still on his face. "Deliver your report, Colonel."

"Of course," he replied, "Our opening attack went as planned. "Auel, Stella, and Sting were able to infiltrate Armory One without difficulty and had no trouble in hijacking the Abyss, Chaos, and Gaia. They wrought considerable havoc inside the colony before interior forces led by a fourth prototype forced them to pull out."

Djibril's eyes narrowed. "A fourth prototype? Our sources indicated that there were only three."

"They were mistaken," said Nazara, "From the data we gathered during the battle it appears that this mobile suit was inspired by the GAT-X105 Strike we developed in cooperation with Morgenroete during the last war. Our pilots witnessed it equipping packs analogous to the Aile and Sword packs, and it would be reasonable to assume that it has one based on the Launcher pack that it has not revealed yet."

Djibril scowled. "You should've captured that one as well, Colonel."

"An effort was made," he said, forcing himself to remain civil, "but in the end we were unable to do so."

Djibril shrugged. "Well, no matter. A Coordinator copycat of our first successful mobile suit does not interest me. The other three prototypes are far more interesting to me in any case."

_Which means he'll be that much angrier when he learns that two of them were destroyed_, Nazara thought darkly.

"Our three Extended pilots managed to get out of the colony," he said, choosing to dance around the matter for a few seconds longer, "Meanwhile we inflicted considerable casualties with the _Girty Lue _and her mobile suits. Force Alpha also launched from the debris field to move into bombardment range of Armory One. ZAFT launched its new battleship to defend the colony and it moved to intercept Force Alpha."

Djibril smirked. "Ah, their precious _Minerva_… I'm sure its fiery demise was a pleasure to witness in person. Colonel, do be sure to send me footage of its destruction for my viewing. It will be so sweet to watch, along with seeing the new mobile suits we stole from the abominations being used against them."

_Here it comes_, he thought, _Time to unleash the cyclone…_

Nazara cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, my lord, but I'm afraid that will not be possible."

Djibril frowned. "What is that supposed to imply? You know security restrictions mean nothing to me, Colonel."

Nazara grit his teeth. "It's not a matter of security, but of facts on the ground. The _Minerva _was not destroyed… but the Abyss and Chaos were."

The reaction Nazara had predicted did not disappoint.

"_Excuse me?_" Djibril hissed with an arctic chill, "Perhaps you wish to clarify your statement, Colonel…_ carefully_, I might add."

"There's nothing to clarify," Nazara growled, "The _Minerva _survived, and Abyss and Chaos were destroyed… by _Wing Zero_."

_And now we shift from blizzard to volcano_, he mused, _in_ _three, two, one…_

The buildup was subtle, but the signs were there for one who knew where to look. Nazara could see a slight twitch at the corner of Djibril's mouth. His gaze seemed to flicker, with his eyes taking on a manic light. His breath had shortened slightly. For a brief instant he seemed to freeze entirely, and Nazara knew that the dam was about to break.

He was not disappointed.

"_**Wing Zero? Explain this AT ONCE, Colonel!**_" Djibril roared, "_**It was DESTROYED! It cannot POSSIBLY have interfered!**_"

"I thought it was destroyed as well, my lord," Nazara replied, surprising himself at how calm his voice sounded, "Apparently the Orb Union deceived us; the unit we saw get demolished must have been a fake. Not only did Wing Zero survive, but it has been upgraded."

Djibril slammed his hand on the arm of his chair. "_**Upgraded? You should've DESTROYED IT, COLONEL! You have NO IDEA what your incompetence has cost us!**_"

Nazara's patience was wearing thin; he would not be belittled like this. "If there is someone that is incompetent it is our intelligence agencies. _They _were the ones tasked with attempting to track Heero Yuy after the war and make sure he did not acquire another mobile suit like Wing Zero! Since they couldn't even _find him _after the final battle I would say that they failed _miserably!_"

"_You_ were the one that encountered it on the battlefield in the final battle of the last war!" shouted Djibril, though his voice was actually a bit calmer than earlier, "_You _failed to destroy it at Jachin Due, and because of _your _failure Wing Zero was allowed to survive to the end of the war in the first place! Now you tell me that Orb's _bitch _Chief Representative was able to trick us into believing that they had destroyed Wing Zero when in fact they had hidden it away and blew up a _dummy _instead!"

"Take it up with the Seirans!" Nazara growled, "_They're _our chief intelligence sources inside Orb, and they're supposed to report to _you_! _They _should've caught on to Cagalli's treachery!"

"You forget yourself, _Colonel!_" Djibril sneered, "The power you hold now is power that _I _gave you! It can be taken away if I deem you to be a liability!"

There was harsh silence for a moment, with Nazara begrudgingly realizing that, for now, he would have to back down. It was a severe wound to his considerable pride, but he would find a way to avenge it later.

"Forgive me… my lord," he grumbled, "I only ask that you apportion blame to where it truly should go."

Djibril nodded, his expression becoming cold again as his fury seemed to return to a controllable level. "Accounts will be settled, and heads will roll. Yours remains safe from the chopping block, Colonel… for now."

Nazara bowed his head but said nothing.

_One day our positions will be reversed_, he silently resolved, _and when they are I will take great pleasure in watching you squirm!_

"Now," said Djibril, "continue with your report."

Nazara nodded. "After Wing Zero destroyed the Abyss and Chaos I engaged it in the Nosferatu and prevented it from destroying the Gaia. Sam engaged the Strike copycat while Force Alpha continued to move forward to attack the _Minerva_. However, before Force Alpha could begin bombardment, they were attacked from above by two unknown mobile suits. Just before that two more unknown machines had engaged the Dagger Ls it had launched at the _Minerva_. All four mobile suits are unique, but our preliminary analysis does show some similarities… to Wing Zero."

Djibril's eyes narrowed. "So now there's _five _of that damn thing?"

Nazara shook his head. "None of the new mobile suits have anything like Wing Zero's rifle. That being said, they are all formidable machines. Scans revealed them to be nuclear powered and constructed from the same unknown alloy that Wing Zero is made of. Together those four mobile suits with the _Minerva _destroyed Force Alpha. The _Girty Lue _was barely able to escape the battle after recovering my mobile suit, Sam's, and the Gaia. Minuano managed to damage the Strike copy but failed to destroy it."

Djibril folded his arms. "So, apart from the capture of the Gaia, wrecking some facilities in Armory One, and destroying a few ships and mobile suits, this operation was a _complete disaster! _An entire Black Fleet battle group destroyed, and you lost two of the prototypes you were sent to steal!"

"The arrival of Wing Zero and the other four new mobile suits was completely unforeseen by anyone," Nazara growled, "Under those circumstances we were lucky to manage to retreat with the _Girty Lue_."

Djibril nodded. "Yes, and now we must adjust our plans. This operation was supposed to have resulted in us gaining all three of those prototypes, destroying Armory One and the new battleship, and killing both Chairman Durandal and Representative Cagalli! Instead we only got the Gaia as a consolation prize!"

"My lord," said Nazara carefully, "we can still salvage the situation. The _Girty Lue's _current course takes it into the orbital Debris Belt, and I know that Force Beta is in the area. They're larger than Force Alpha was, and when we rendezvous with them we can spring an ambush of the _Minerva _and destroy that ship, along with those new mobile suits!"

Djibril nodded. "Yes. Rear Admiral Xen is with them on the _Obstinate_; her new toys should prove to be useful in such a battle."

_Xen_, Nazara thought, _I'd hoped not to have to deal with her…_

"Can we trust her?" he said, "She's one of the very few soldiers of her kind left in our forces. We discharged the vast majority of them for a good reason."

By 'her kind' Nazara was very simply referring to the fact that Rear Admiral Dorana Xen, head of the Earth Alliance's Special Projects Task Force, was a woman. In the aftermath of the Bloody Valentine War there had been a considerable shakeup within OMNI Enforcer, driven by the very prominent defections of the _Archangel _and the _Dominion_. The new High Command and powerful figures in both the government and LOGOS had reached the conclusion that because both those ships were commanded by women their captains had been weak and thus not sufficiently devoted to their cause. In the eyes of the all-male higher ups women lacked the necessary strength, brutality, and loyalty for command or for soldiery of any kind, and as a result of these and other sexist beliefs all female members of the Earth Alliance armed forces, or at least those directly controlled by the Atlantic Federation, were discharged shortly after the signing of the Treaty of Junius Seven.

There were only two exceptions to this rule. The first one was if a woman had proved herself to be of particularly great value. Rear Admiral Dorana Xen fit the bill in this case due to her sheer technical genius; her Special Projects Task Force was a vital research body for the military and the men who had oversight of her were forced to admit that it would not run nearly as efficiently and productively without her. Girls like Stella Loussier were the second exception; orphans picked up off the street or kidnapped from institutions and thrown into the meat-grinder of the Extended Program.

Djibril scowled. "I also had her kept on as the head of Special Projects Task Force for a reason, Colonel. She'll do her job, and with enthusiasm; she's been waiting for a chance to test her toys against targets that will shoot back."

"I doubt they'll be successful in destroying any of them," said Nazara, "These aren't a handful of GINNs we're up against, after all."

"They don't have to destroy any of them," Djibril replied, "They'll serve as distractions while the rest of your force moves in for the kill."

Nazara nodded. "As long as they can operate in the Debris Belt, I can use them."

"From what I understand the A.I.s have been developed to the point that maneuvering through a field of scrap is no issue," said Djibril, "You'll have no problem using them in your Debris Belt battle."

"What about Xen?" he asked, "She won't be questioning my authority, will she?"

"Of course not," said Djibril, "Xen knows how the game works; whatever Phantom Pain says goes, all the more so if it's from the head Colonel. Your authority on the battlefield will not be in question, Nazara."

"I'll also need new mobile suits to replace those lost in the Armory One raid," said Nazara, "and two more Extended if you can spare them."

Djibril nodded. "Let's see… Irina and Gregory should do nicely. I'll have them sent out at once. They'll be waiting for you with Force Beta, along with your replacement Dagger Ls."

"Thank you, my lord," said Nazara.

Djibril scowled. "I expect better results this time, Colonel. Kill Heero Yuy and whoever his four friends are. The final destruction of Wing Zero is of paramount importance; it's too great a threat to our plans to be allowed to survive any longer."

Nazara nodded. "It will be done, Lord Djibril."

"It had better be," Djibril growled, "for the preservation of our blue and pure world. Good hunting, Colonel."

As the head of Blue Cosmos and Logos disappeared from the screen Nazara leaned back in his chair.

"For the preservation of our blue and pure world," he said with a cruel smile, "and for a little revenge!"

….

**October 3****rd****, C.E. 73**

Still rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Talia rushed onto the bridge. She'd only gotten a few hours of shuteye before she'd gotten an alert from one of her subordinates, and she hoped that this was worth them getting her out of bed when she desperately needed some sleep.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Captain," said the sensor officer, "we've found Bogey One!"

That was enough to shake off any remaining weariness. "What? How?"

"A recon GINN from one of the outlying patrols passed this on to us a few minutes ago," the officer replied, "Check this out!"

Looking up at the screen, Talia saw what appeared to be empty space for a moment. Then there was a flicker before what looked like pieces of Bogey One appeared. Those pieces then disappeared before being replaced by different sections of the ship. After about a minute of those strange fluctuations finally the entire vessel appeared.

"It looks like they're having problems with their Mirage Colloid system," said Talia.

The sensor officer nodded. "Aye, Captain. Their position's currently just at the edge of the orbital Debris Belt. That recon GINN is still tracking them, but its mother ship isn't as close to Bogey One as we are."

"Can we get that ship on our radar screen?" she asked.

"It already is," the officer replied, "It's faint and at the edge, but it's there."

Talia nodded as she settled into her chair. "Best speed to the engines, helm! We're going to run her down!"

"Aye, Captain!" her helmsman replied.

It would take a considerable amount of time to catch up to Bogey One from this distance, but as long as their Mirage Colloid system continued to malfunction the _Minerva _had a shot at her, and Talia was determined to take it.

_It won't be long_, she thought, _I'm going to make you pay for what you did at Armory One!_

….

"Captain Lee," growled Colonel Nazara as he entered the bridge, "What the hell is going on?"

"Our Mirage Colloid system was on the fritz and then shut down," the Captain replied, "We're trying to find out what happened now."

_Damn it_, he silently fumed, _We were supposed to reveal ourselves eventually to lure the Minerva in, but this is too soon!_

"Get me engineering at once!" he ordered.

When the middle-aged Chief Engineer appeared on the screen Nazara pounced. "Chief Schrader, what the hell is wrong with our cloak?"

"Colonel," the Chief Engineer replied, "we're still looking for the source of the problem. However, based on the fluctuation of the cloak before the complete failure it appears that a circuit or relay was damaged by the shockwave from the detonation of the external fuel tanks in yesterday's battle."

"I told you we ran the risk of damage if we detonated them at that distance," said Captain Lee, "Frankly I'm surprised the cloak didn't fail sooner."

"Shut up," snarled the Colonel, "Chief Schrader, how long will it take to fix?"

"I can't give anything solid right now," said the Chief Engineer, "We still need to find the source, and with the system distributed so widely that will take a considerable amount of time. I'm sorry, Colonel, but I can't make any guarantees."

"Just get it fixed," growled Nazara, "Now!"

He didn't even wait for the Chief Engineer to reply before cutting the connection. "How far out are we from Force Beta?"

"Several hours," said Captain Lee, "We should still be able to rendezvous with them before the _Minerva _catches up to us, but it will be tight."

Nazara nodded. "Get us there as fast as you can. Let Force Beta know that we're being pursued."

The Captain nodded and moved to carry out his orders.

_I can still win this_, he thought, _If we can make it to Force Beta and organize our attack before the enemy catches up to us, we have a shot. Follow me, Minerva…_

_ …to your death._

….

"Lady Cagalli," said Natalie, "with all due respect, I believe you should rest a little more."

Cagalli shook her head. "Natalie, I appreciate your concern, but you said twenty-four hours rest and observation, and it's been over that time period now. I need to get out of here just for a little while before I go stir crazy."

"I'll be accompanying her," said Athrun, "If anything happens I'll bring her straight back here."

Cagalli was relieved to see Natalie nod. "Very well. I would ask that you return here later on just so I can do another check on your head."

Cagalli smiled at her. "I will. It's feeling a lot better already though."

"Still," Natalie replied, "I must insist on it."

"Don't worry," said Cagalli, "I'll come back later today."

Together she and Athrun left the infirmary. Cagalli was really looking forward to get an actual tour of the ship, however informal it might be. Since Athrun had served in ZAFT during the last war she figured that he would be able to serve as a guide; the _Minerva _might be a brand new battleship, but surely an ex-soldier who was familiar with ZAFT protocols would be able to learn the ropes quickly enough.

She found herself smiling as the door closed behind her, and her boyfriend was quick to pick up on it. "You're looking pretty well."

Cagalli turned to him and nodded. "It feels great to finally get out of there. Natalie's nice and all, but any longer in there and I think I'd go nuts."

Athrun smiled at her. "You've never been one to sit still for long."

"It's nice to know that some things never change," said a familiar voice from down the corridor.

Turning towards the sound, Cagalli's eyes widened at the approaching figure. "Heero! What brings you over here?"

"I was coming to check up on you and Alex," he said, nodding at Athrun, "I'm sorry about yesterday. I hope I didn't make things too difficult for you."

Cagalli shook her head, taking care to stay 'in character' like he was. "Chairman Durandal and Captain Gladys were pretty set on getting answers about the Albion's appearance and Wing Zero's destruction, but it was nothing that I couldn't handle."

"They won't stop here," said Athrun, "They'll raise this issue again at the embassy level soon if they haven't already."

"We'll deal with that when the time comes," said Cagalli, her eyes narrowing as she looked at Heero, "In the meantime, the Chairman mentioned that you weren't the _only _Gundam pilot on this ship. Is there something you want to explain to me, Heero?"

Heero nodded. "Yes, though not out here. Would you mind following me?"

He didn't wait for an answer before he started off down the corridor, leaving Cagalli and Athrun no choice but to tag along. Cagalli's mind was already racing, and she realized that the Gundam pilot's arrival here was more than just a friendly check-in.

"Heero," she said, "you knew I would be leaving the med bay today, didn't you?"

"Yes," Heero replied, "Standard procedure for a wound like yours would be a twenty-four hour period of observation and rest. Frankly I'm actually a little surprised that you didn't force your way out of the infirmary sooner."

Cagalli smiled. "Yeah, well, both the nurse and Alex wouldn't let me out."

"You needed to rest," said Athrun, smiling at her, "Sorry, but as your bodyguard I can't let you wander around when your health's at risk."

Cagalli elbowed him and smirked. "You're no fun."

"Nor should he be right now," said Heero, "This is hardly a pleasure cruise."

Cagalli sighed. "Don't you think I know that, Heero? We just got out of a battle yesterday and are pursuing the surviving attackers. We'll probably plunge right into another fight soon enough, though since you're here now I'm not exactly worried about our survival. I _am _worried about what all this means for peace in the Earth Sphere… not to mention the nightmare that'll be waiting for me when I get back to Orb."

Heero nodded. "I imagine the other noble houses must be panicking right about now. Have you had a chance to contact them?"

Cagalli grimaced at the thought. "It's on my to-do list… and I'd really rather put it off for a little bit longer."

"You have to get in touch with them eventually, Cagalli," Athrun admonished her.

"You're worried about the Seirans?" asked Heero.

Cagalli nodded. "They've been pushing pretty hard for closer ties with the Earth Alliance, especially when it comes to security, and they weren't very happy about me making the trip out to Armory One. This incident won't help matters."

"Even though the Earth Alliance was the most likely party behind the attack on the colony?" asked Athrun.

Cagalli sighed. "Without hard proof it won't matter to them. Yuna and Unato will just say that the attack proved that ZAFT couldn't guarantee my safety or broader stability and that they provoked it by building Armory One and launching the new armaments program."

"What about the other noble houses?" asked Heero.

"They're all still pretty shaken up by the Alliance invasion during the last war, along with the attack on Elysium," Cagalli replied, "Orb's tradition of neutrality used to be an area of mutual agreement, but the events of the last conflict really threw a wrench in our internal politics. The other noble houses see our refusal to engage in a bilateral security pact with either of the dominant powers as making us vulnerable… and since the Earth Alliance has the strongest military presence on the planet, they're leaning towards partnership with them."

"They do have a point about Orb's vulnerability," said Heero, "but if it entered into a major partnership with either the Earth Alliance or the PLANTs you would become nothing more than a vassal. It wouldn't be right away, but eventually Orb would be reduced to a client state. You'd be nothing more than a pawn to them instead of a meaningful and powerful entity. Besides, Orb's neutrality is actually part of what ensures stability. If it becomes allies with either the Alliance or ZAFT it would upset the balance of power and make a new war all the more likely."

"I wish the other nobles saw things the same way," said Athrun.

Cagalli shook her head. "My father was the strongest proponent of our stance as a neutral nation, and he surrounded himself with people who held those beliefs. When he died, those people died with him. I've tried to find others with their courage and determination, but I haven't had much success. After the war I had to forge partnerships with the players still left standing in order to rebuild Orb. My father's faction was hit hard, so despite the success of our efforts to bring the conflict to an end I wasn't exactly in a position of strength."

"You've done well with what's available to you," said Heero, "Despite everything that's happened, Orb still stands as an independent nation. Under your continued leadership I believe it can remain that way."

Cagalli smiled. "Thanks, Heero."

The Gundam pilot nodded. "No problem. By the way, we're here."

Looking past him, Cagalli was startled to see that Heero was right; just behind him was the door to the conference room.

She looked at him nervously. "What have you told them about me?"

"That you're the leader of the Orb Union and a decent mobile suit pilot," Heero replied, "I thought I'd leave the real first impression up to you."

Cagalli smirked. "How generous of you."

"Fair warning," said Heero, "Apart from Quatre, we're not natural diplomats. We say what we're thinking, simple as that."

"I figured as much after getting to know you," said Cagalli, "I'm ready."

"Are you sure?" said Athrun, looking over at Heero, "We sure as hell weren't ready for Heero. How the hell are we supposed to handle four more of him?"

"That's up to you," said Heero as he opened the door, "Good luck."

The two of them followed him inside. Cagalli wasn't sure what to expect. Her knowledge of the other four Gundam pilots was very limited. Heero had shown her and some of the others a few pictures of them and their mobile suits but had not gone into details.

_If they're anything like him_, she thought nervously, _I may be getting in over my head here…_

Standing around the conference table were four young men. Cagalli was struck by how, like Heero, none of them wore military uniforms. They were all dressed casually, though Cagalli was taken aback to see one had on what looked like a priest's getup. Two of them seemed friendly enough, while one struck her as aloof and the last one was just as damned hard to read as Heero.

Cagalli saw Heero turn around to make sure the door was closed behind them before he turned to the other four pilots. "Everyone, this is the Orb Union's Chief Representative, Cagalli Yula Athha. Her bodyguard is Athrun Zala, though for the sake of his cover please refer to him as Alex Dino when out of this room."

The blond pilot was the first one to step forward, holding out his hand and smiling at her. "My name's Quatre. It's nice to meet you, Lady Cagalli. I've read a lot about you in the materials that Heero provided us."

Cagalli smiled as she shook his hand. "Nice to meet you, Quatre. Please, call me Cagalli. It sounds like Heero's been getting you and the others up to speed."

"Yeah, and he certainly gave us some entertaining reading," said the pilot in the priest's outfit, "Name's Duo Maxwell. Nice to meet you, princess."

_Great_, she thought, _looks like this one's a joker._

She gritted her teeth through her smile. "Please don't call me that."

Duo chuckled. "No promises there, princess."

Ignoring him, Cagalli turned to the remaining two pilots. The one with the brown hair swept forward over his right met her gaze and nodded. "Trowa Barton. It's a pleasure."

"Likewise," said Cagalli before looking at the last pilot.

The young man with Chinese features folded his arms and nodded. "Wufei."

"So," said Cagalli, "what brings you all over to the Cosmic Era? From what little I know I thought that you four were helping to keep the peace in your world."

"We were doing that," said Duo, "but come on; did you really think we'd just forget about our old buddy?"

"We came here to find Heero," said Quatre, "After all he did in our old war we weren't just about to give up on him after he went missing."

"Even the explosion of the falling Barge reactor would not have been enough to kill you as long as you were piloting Wing Zero, Heero," said Trowa.

Wufei smirked. "I would've been disappointed if that was all it took to kill him."

_Sounds like he's got a reputation back in his old world too_, mused Cagalli, _although I really shouldn't be surprised by that. This _is _the guy that destroyed the Alaska base, Avalon, and GENESIS after all. Who knows what kind of crap he pulled in his old world? Well, I guess Captain Ramius does, but she never releases any information about that unless she's with Heero and he gives her the okay._

"Anyway," Duo continued, "we came out here because we knew that Heero was still alive, and we wanted to find him and bring his ass home… and he's being a real pain in the ass about that last part."

"I already made myself clear on that point," Heero replied calmly, "The Cosmic Era is my home now. It doesn't matter how hard you press the argument. I'm not leaving."

"Haven't you thought about it at all, Heero?" asked Quatre, "It's not just about all the work it took us to get here. There's everyone you met in our war to consider! You may not be the most sociable person, but I know you made a few friends apart from us. Besides, there's still Relena!"

_Relena?_, thought Cagalli, her eyes narrowing as she studied Heero, _Who's that?_

Heero shook his head. "Quatre, like I told you yesterday, she would understand my decision."

"Maybe that would make more sense to us if you would tell us what's driving you," Quatre replied, "I know you, Heero! You're not just staying in the Cosmic Era to protect the peace! There's something else here that you refuse to leave!"

Cagalli smiled; she knew _exactly _why Heero had refused to leave. She would back up her friend, although she did have a question to ask him first.

"Heero," she said, "why haven't you told them the real reason?"

"Because it's not just for me to tell them," said Heero, "They'll find out soon enough."

_He means when they meet Captain Ramius_, she thought, _All right, Heero, I'll play along for now._

Cagalli nodded. "Fair enough, Heero."

Duo and Quatre looked confused.

"What are you talking about?" asked Duo.

Cagalli smirked. "It's just like Heero said. You'll find out soon enough."

"Interesting," said Trowa.

Wufei shrugged. "Whatever."

His reaction struck Cagalli as odd; he wasn't nearly as worked up about the matter as the others were. In fact, he didn't even seem to care.

_It feels like he didn't come here to bring Heero back, unlike the others_, she thought, _So why _is _he here?_

Athrun stepped forward. "Look, now's really not the time to be having this kind of argument. In case you haven't noticed the _Minerva _is in pursuit of the battleship that attacked Armory One. We could end up fighting them at any time!"

"We're well aware of that," said Trowa.

"Relax," said Duo, "We're not going to let this get in the way of how we fight. We're better than that."

"We agreed the day before to put this matter on hold," said Quatre, "I think we should abide by that, at least until this hunt is over."

Trowa nodded. "That would be wise."

"Good," said Wufei, "We've got bigger fish to fry right now."

"Speaking of fighting," said Heero, "We need to get Athrun into the combat rotation. To my knowledge no other pilot's been assigned to the ZAKU Warrior that you brought Cagalli aboard the _Minerva _in."

"Another pilot couldn't hurt," said Quatre, "especially if it's one we know for sure we can trust."

Athrun shook his head. "I already tried talking the Captain into it yesterday, but she wouldn't allow it. She and her crew only know me as Cagalli's bodyguard; they don't know who I really am."

"Don't be so sure," said Heero, and Cagalli saw his eyes narrow, "The crew, perhaps, but Durandal may suspect otherwise."

"What makes you say that?" asked Athrun.

Heero closed his eyes for a moment before replying. "A feeling. Nothing more."

Duo chuckled. "Still being a cryptic bastard. At least that part of you hasn't changed."

"If the Captain refused before, how do you plan on getting Athrun into the flight rotation?" asked Trowa.

"I'll talk to her myself," said Heero, "along with Durandal. I can be pretty persuasive."

Quatre smiled. "You've actually become something of a diplomat since we last met, at least if what happened down in the hangar yesterday is anything to go by. This should be interesting."

"Hold on," Athrun interjected, "If Durandal suspects my true identity, why hasn't he mentioned it to anyone else yet?"

"He has his own agenda," said Heero, "I can only speculate. Perhaps he's trying to keep his options open."

"What are you talking about?" asked Cagalli.

"We should head to the bridge," said Heero, not directly answering her question, "It'll be better to handle this now rather than immediately before a battle."

"You don't need us to tag along, do you?" asked Trowa.

Heero shook his head. "Cagalli and Athrun will be enough. If any of you want to tag along, by all means."

"Ah, what the hell?" said Duo with a smirk, "I'm bored anyway. Might as well stir things up on the bridge."

Quatre sighed. "I guess that means I'd better come too. Someone has to keep you from causing too much trouble."

"I'll be down with Nataku," said Wufei, "Try not to screw things up."

"You're just begging for me to clock you one, you know that?" quipped Duo.

"Easy, boys," said Cagalli.

"I'll be down in the hangar too," said Trowa, "I want to make sure Heavyarms Arsenal is ready for battle."

"All right," said Heero, "Let's go."

….

"Absolutely not," said Talia.

She'd thought she'd put this matter to bed the day before down in the med bay, but here was Lady Cagalli's bodyguard again asking to pilot the ZAKU Warrior he'd flown yesterday. To make matters worse, not only was he confronting both her and Durandal right on the bridge with Orb's Chief Representative by his side, but coming along for the ride were Heero, Duo, and Quatre.

"Why not?" asked Alex, "You know I can pilot it and you need every pilot you can get for the coming battle!"

"It's irregular and in complete violation of protocol!" Talia shot back, "Regardless of whatever ability you showed yesterday the fact remains that you are a civilian, Alex Dino! The rules are very clear here; you will not be piloting one of our mobile suits!"

"Captain Gladys," said Lady Cagalli, "I can appreciate the regulations that you are required to uphold in your position, but surely you can make an exception under circumstances like this! Alex Dino is a fine pilot, and not only would he serve you well but it would also allow him to better fulfill his own duties as my bodyguard. It's not like the enemy is actually on the _Minerva _right now, after all."

"Captain Gladys, if I may?" Heero cut in.

Talia turned to the Demon Lord of Avalon, her eyes narrowing. It made some amount of sense that Lady Cagalli would aid her bodyguard in trying to convince her to let him fly in the defense of the _Minerva_, but why someone like Heero Yuy might intervene in a matter like this was harder to pin down. She was aware that the pilot was friends with the Orb Union's leader, but she couldn't see that as reason enough for him to help out on this kind of an issue.

Talia nodded. "Go ahead, Heero."

"I can personally vouch for Alex's combat abilities," said Heero, "We fought together during the last war. His skills are solid, and his experience would be a valuable asset to us in a time like this."

Talia sighed. "I can appreciate the fact that he's a combat veteran, especially if he managed to survive the hell of the last war, but you should know that there is more to this than just experience. As a civilian he would have no knowledge of ZAFT combat protocol and how we conduct operations."

"I'm a civilian too," Heero replied, "I may be paramilitary, but as I'm not part of a formal armed force and its accompanying structure I do qualify as a civilian in the broad sense. The same goes for the four pilots working with me. I don't see you making an issue of that."

"That is true," said Durandal with a smile, "but you and the pilots with you are a different case. The combined power of your Gundams and your skills are invaluable to us in a time like this, and since I know you worked with ZAFT defectors like Andrew Waltfeld and Eric Bristow I know you're familiar with our protocols and doctrines. Talia is aware of that as well. We have no such assurances with regards to Alex Dino."

Durandal's words made sense, but there was something about his smile that made Talia uneasy. It was a smile she knew all too well; it was the one he wore when he was about to enact a plan.

_Gilbert_, she thought, _what hand do you have to play in this?_

She saw Alex take a step forward. "Actually, you would have that assurance. Before I fought alongside Heero… I was a member of ZAFT."

Talia had been aware of the bridge crew following their conversation, though to their credit they had at least tried to be sneaky about it. Those attempts at subtlety went right out the window at Alex's statement. She saw more than a few jaws drop and eyes widen, and for good reason; it was pretty ballsy for a defector to reveal himself on the bridge of ZAFT's newest warship.

She turned to Orb's leader. "Lady Cagalli, is this true?"

Lady Cagalli nodded, and her eyes narrowed. "It is. He joined with Orb to help us end the war, and in return I've granted him asylum. I've done the same for plenty of other defectors from both the PLANTs and the Earth Alliance. I know the sentences ZAFT demands for those who desert the ranks, but I would think very carefully before arresting him if I were you, Captain Gladys. You'd be instigating a serious diplomatic incident, and considering that you have your hands full right now I don't think any of us would want that."

"Be careful, Lady Cagalli," said Talia with a glare, "With all due respect, you're not in Orb right now. You should be mindful of your position."

"You should be mindful of _yours_," Heero cut in, and Talia was stunned at just how _icy _his gaze had become, "She may be on a ZAFT battleship right now, but with _my_ backing she _easily_ outguns you, and you know it. Don't think that just because I'm not in the Albion right now that I can't raise hell. _I _was the one that stormed the _Dominion _and killed Azrael in the last war, remember?"

_How could I forget?_, she thought darkly, _I believe you had two others go inside that ship with you at the time… and since you have _four_ pilots backing you up I know you're even more formidable now. Even though my crew is made up entirely of Coordinators that does not guarantee our victory in a shipboard firefight if _you _are our adversary. Still, I can't just let you make threats on my bridge without response…_

Before she could fire back at him, though, Durandal beat her to the punch. "Please, everyone, let's step back here for a minute. There's no need for threats right now. Lady Cagalli, I give you my word that your bodyguard will not face any sort of legal action or reprisal here for his past actions… even if he's _Athrun Zala_."

Talia's eyes widened in shock, and though she wasn't paying attention to them right now she was sure that her bridge crew's reactions mirrored her own. Lady Cagalli and her bodyguard seemed taken aback as well. Glancing over at the other three pilots, though, Talia found them to be quite calm. Duo actually seemed to be amused by the turn of events, while Quatre appeared mildly concerned and Heero had simply narrowed his eyes as he studied Durandal.

"Gilbert," she said softly, "are… are you _serious?_"

"Quite so, Talia," he replied, his smile growing as he turned to the others, "and please, don't try to deny it. I understand your desire to conceal your true identity, Athrun, but you needn't concern yourself with that here and now."

"Hold on!" Lady Cagalli stammered, "You… you don't have any proof!"

Durandal smirked. "Your bodyguard's reaction is all the proof I need, Lady Cagalli."

Indeed, the bodyguard seemed almost as at a loss for words as his master, and what he could muster did not help matters. "How… how do you…"

Quatre sighed. "So much for keeping his cover."

"Yup," Duo chimed in, "Looks like the cat's out of the bag now."

"You knew the whole time," said Heero, and from the tone of his voice it clearly wasn't a question.

Durandal nodded. "From the moment I received the dossier in preparation for Lady Cagalli's visit to Armory One I knew exactly who he was. You had a good cover, Athrun; the ones who wrote the file had no idea that 'Alex Dino' was an alias. Still, it was doomed to failure the moment I saw your picture. You see, we've met before, and I never forget a face."

Athrun shook his head. "No… we've never met before."

"Ah, but we _have_," said Durandal with a chuckle, "although I quite understand if you don't remember, Athrun. It was at a fund raiser in the capital back during the war when Siegel Clyne was still Supreme Council Chairman. You were home on leave, and your father had brought you to the gathering, although if I recall correctly it looked as though you would rather have been anywhere but there. We shook hands briefly, but knowing how many other people you were introduced to that evening I'm sure my face must've blurred together with all the others."

Athrun nodded. "Yeah, sorry about that. I don't recall you specifically… but I do remember the gathering you speak of. My father trotted me out there in full military uniform so everyone could see that his own son was part of ZAFT and the war effort; it was a way for him to squeeze further donations out of the pockets of his supporters."

"Yes," Durandal replied, "A common enough ploy in politics, with varying degrees of effectiveness depending on circumstances. It worked quite well that evening, I believe."

"You've made your point," Heero cut in, "Since you're aware of who he really is then you know that he would have no problems adapting to ZAFT combat operations."

"He's right," said Athrun, "and like I said yesterday down in the med bay I would be willing to place myself within your command structure. I would obey your orders, Captain Gladys, as long as they allow me to protect Lady Cagalli."

"An offer that we did _not _get from Heero Yuy," said Durandal with a smirk, "That's something to consider, right Talia?"

Talia sighed; the tone of Durandal's voice made it clear that he wanted her to do more than just _consider _it. Still, she would make damn sure her protest was known before signing off on this.

"With all due respect, Chairman," she said, "this is still highly irregular. The Defense Council would not take it well if we allowed a civilian access to one of our combat units, and I still have my own concerns about integration and the integrity of the chain of command."

"I understand, Talia," Durandal calmly replied, "If it's the Defense Council that worries you I can handle them. I don't believe Athrun would give you any trouble with regards to your tactical operations."

Athrun nodded. "Captain, if you let me fly that ZAKU and protect Lady Cagalli I _will _obey your orders. Please, let me fight the next time we go into battle!"

In theory Talia could still refuse, but she knew that in practice there was only one option available to her. Durandal seemed to have already made up his mind on the matter, and as a mere Captain she could not go against him. Besides, despite her protests she did see the value in having a pilot of Athrun Zala's caliber fighting under her command. Even with a mere ZAKU Warrior she was sure that he would be formidable, and with Lady Cagalli aboard the _Minerva _he would have plenty of motivation to fight.

"Very well," she said, "I'll allow it provided the Chairman has no objections to it."

Durandal smiled. "None at all, Talia."

"Lady Cagalli," said Talia, "You are sure about this?"

The Orb Union's leader nodded. "Completely."

Talia turned back to Athrun. "In that case I advise you take some time to familiarize yourself with your machine. You may have briefly flown it in yesterday's battle, but it would still be wise to study up."

Athrun nodded. "I will."

"Be quick about it," said Talia, "It won't be too much longer until we engage the enemy again."

"How far ahead of us are they?" asked Heero.

"Still some distance," said Talia, "but we're gaining on them. We'll be within combat range in a few hours."

"In that case," said Heero, "I have an idea."

….

"That's the ugliest ship I've ever seen," said Colonel Nazara.

The modified _Salvager_-class Reclamation Ship _Obstinate_ wouldn't be winning any prizes for beauty, that was for sure. Manufactured by the Atlantic Federation-based firm Atlas Unlimited Heavy Industries, or AUHI, the vessel was a clear case of where form definitely followed function. 400 meters in length, the ship looked like a giant oval with varying shades of grey plating, a big cylindrical opening right at the bow, and a rectangular command tower jutting up from the upper starboard hull at roughly amid ship. The vessel had been designed as a means to manage and profit from the ever expanding orbital Debris Belt, with the large frontal opening typically being lined with a series of large manipulator arms with claws and various other devices designed to cut up scrap metal and funnel it into the ship for processing before taking the haul back to a refining facility. It was a strictly utilitarian design, one that was perfect for its intended role. As this particular vessel was now used by the Earth Alliance's Special Projects Task Force the salvaging equipment and the manipulator arms had been removed, and the ship now functioned as a hybrid research vessel and carrier. Its armaments were strictly defensive, consisting of twenty CIWS, ten anti-air missile launchers arrayed along the upper hull, and a dual beam cannon mounted on the lower surface. The vessel's engines had been completely overhauled to the point that they were now considered to be military-grade, and while that was a substantial improvement over the original design it did not change the fact that this was not a dedicated warship. Aside from her weak armaments, the vessel's hull remained commercial-grade; she would not last long under heavy fire.

The _Obstinate _was not the only vessel rendezvousing with the _Girty Lue_. Flying with the vessel were ten _Typhoon_-class destroyers, four _Nelson_-class battleships, and an _Agamemnon_-class carrier; Phantom Pain's Black Fleet Force Beta. Each destroyer carried six mobile suits, while each battleship carried eight and the fleet carrier held an impressive twenty machines. This made for a grand total of 112 mobile suits, and that wasn't counting the units operating from the _Girty Lue _or the special machines carried aboard the _Obstinate_.

"Colonel," said the communications officer, "We're receiving a hail from the _Obstinate_!"

"Xen, no doubt," said Captain Lee.

Nazara nodded. "Put her through. Let's get this over with."

The main monitor shifted and the head of the Special Projects Task Force appeared on the screen. In a stark contrast to the ship she was on, Rear Admiral Dorana Xen was a very striking woman. She was in her late thirties, with cold and analytical blue eyes and mid-length black hair. The white officer's uniform fit her quite well, but despite her physical attractiveness she had never shown an interest in romantic attachments; her heart belonged to her research and nothing else.

"Colonel Nazara," she said, not bothering to hide her disdain, "I understand you're being pursued by a resurrected demon… and that you've lost two of the prototypes I was supposed to study, along with the entirety of Force Alpha. I thought you might botch this op, but I never dreamed you'd screw it up _this_ badly."

"Mind yourself, bitch," snarled Nazara, all pretenses of formality and respect for rank thrown right out the window, "or I'll give you a _real _reason to complain."

"Threats without teeth mean nothing to me, Colonel," she replied with a glare, "Lord Djibril values my work and expertise far too highly for you to try to eliminate me over your fragile ego. You're a collared attack dog, and your master has you well on the leash. Behave yourself, mongrel."

Nazara grit his teeth. He would never openly admit it, but he knew full well that Xen was right. Her knowledge and skill were valuable commodities in the eyes of Lord Djibril, and as long as that fact held sway he could not touch her.

"Your toys had better be ready, Xen," he hissed, "That resurrected demon you spoke of will be attacking us soon enough, and it will be bringing friends."

"So I've heard," said the Rear Admiral with a smirk, "Four more new mobile suits flying alongside the upgraded Wing Zero. If Lord Djibril had granted us a larger force we could've mounted a capture operation."

"It doesn't matter now," said Nazara, "Our orders are to destroy them, along with the _Minerva_. Your little experiments had better be enough to distract them, Xen, or this operation will not go well."

"Your concerns are duly noted," said Xen dryly, "and misplaced. All forty units are fully functional, and while I doubt they'll be able to take down Wing Zero or those other four mobile suits they should serve as a more than adequate diversion."

The units Xen was referring to were beam-cannon equipped TS-MA2 Moebius mobile armors. With the Earth Alliance now employing mass production mobile suits the bulk of their mobile armor fleet that had survived the war had been reduced to either scrap or test targets. What had saved these particular units from those fates were the experiments that Xen had performed on them.

Each unit was equipped with a newly developed combat Artificial Intelligence.

Research involving Artificial Intelligence was almost as much a taboo within the Earth Alliance as genetic research along the lines of Coordinator creation. However, the circumstances of the last war, particularly the first half when the Earth Alliance had no mobile suits of its own, had convinced the higher-ups to invest in possible weapons that they ordinarily would've dismissed outright. Xen's A.I. research had thus been funded, but apart from a rudimentary return A.I. that had been utilized on the Strike-Avengers developed in the last war Xen had met with no success before the end of the conflict. However, in the two years since the Second Battle of Jachin Due the Special Projects Task Force had made significant progress, and today's operation would be the first combat test for the A.I. Xen and her team had created. Even if all forty units were destroyed today the data collected from their engagement would still be invaluable and could very well pave the way to improving the A.I.s to the point that they could be used on mobile suits.

"What about my two replacement Extended?" asked the Colonel.

"They're aboard here too," said Xen, "along with the four replacement Dagger Ls you requested. Shall I transfer them over now?"

"Hold on," said Nazara before turning away from the screen, "How long until the _Minerva _reaches combat range?"

"She's not too far away, sir," the sensor operator replied, "Probably about twenty minutes."

"We're cutting this a lot closer than I thought we would," muttered Captain Lee.

Nazara nodded before turning back to Xen. "Don't bother transferring Irina and Gregory. Just launch them from the _Obstinate_, along with the Dagger Ls and the Moebius A.I. units. It won't be too long now until we engage the enemy."

Xen nodded. "Very well. Just try not to lose these two this time, Colonel. We put a lot of work into their mobile suits. Calamity-Aile and Forbidden-Sword will be quite expensive to replace."

"No promises," Nazara replied dryly.

Xen sighed. "I should've expected as much. Xen out."

As she disappeared from the screen Nazara looked over at the sensor operator again. "Is there any sign of the _Minerva_'s mobile suits yet?"

"Not yet, sir," the officer replied.

"It won't be too much longer until that changes," said the Colonel, "Send the order out to all ships; I want all mobile units launched immediately. The _Obstinate_'s Moebius units will form the first wave. The mobile suits will wait for them to engage the enemy before setting up for flanking attacks."

"Aye, sir," said the communications officer.

"Captain Lee, array the fleet for battle," Nazara ordered, "Destroyers out front, battleships brining up the middle, _Obstinate_, _Girty Lue_, and the carrier _Bismarck _at the rear."

The _Girty Lue_'s Captain nodded. "Aye, Colonel."

"Get me engineering," said Nazara.

A few seconds later Chief Engineer Schrader appeared on the screen.

"Chief," said Nazara, "what's the status of the Mirage Colloid?"

"We're still working on bringing the system back up to full functionality," Schrader replied, "We're close, Colonel."

"Can it be done in the next twenty minutes?" asked the Colonel impatiently.

"I can't make any promises," said the Chief Engineer, "This is a highly complex system, Colonel!"

Nazara grimaced in disgust. "I don't want excuses, Chief, only results. Get back to work and inform me the second the system is operational!"

Schrader nodded. "Understood, Colonel."

As the Engineer disappeared from the screen Nazara got out of his chair. "Captain, I'll be making a sortie as well. Have Stella and Sam get down to their mobile suits. Command is yours."

Captain Lee nodded. "Understood, Colonel. Good hunting."

"It had better be," growled the Colonel as he headed for the exit, "Too much is riding on it."

….

Unbeknownst to Force Beta of the Black Fleet it was going to be engaged much sooner that it would've liked. Floating not too far from the _Obstinate_ was the Deathscythe Omega, concealed thanks to its active-cloak, with a clear view of the enemy force.

_You're not the only one that can disappear, Bogey One_, Duo Maxwell thought with a smirk, _You've got no idea that the shoe's on the other foot now, eh? Well, they do say ignorance is bliss. Too bad you won't have much longer to enjoy it._

He watched as the enemy ships deployed their mobile suits and mobile armors. He'd been watching them for some time now, waiting patiently for the right moment to contact Heero and give him the go ahead per the plan they'd worked up earlier. Deathscythe Omega was streaming data to Wing Zero Albion and the other three Gundams, along with the battleship _Minerva_. Studying his sensors carefully, Duo's eyes narrowed as he looked at the readings coming from the Moebius units.

"Mobile Dolls," he muttered, "Didn't think I'd find those out here. At least they don't look as tough as White Fang's old toys."

Deciding now was as good a time as any he got on the secure tactical channel and contacted Heero.

"I've got firing data coming your way, buddy," he said with a grin, "Time to light them up!"

….

Like the Deathscythe Omega, Wing Zero Albion and the other three Gundams had launched earlier; with their nuclear reactors they naturally had a much longer operating time than the battery powered mobile suits used by the _Minerva_. This meant that Heero and the other Gundam pilots had been able to deploy their machines well before Bogey One or its accompanying battle group would've been able to detect their launch, and the Perfect Soldier had taken full advantage of that by sending Duo ahead as forward recon while positioning the other Gundams in concealed locations in the Debris Belt ahead of the _Minerva_.

Despite the Deathscythe Omega's impressive stealth systems Heero knew that the enemy would've detected Duo's transmission, although they would be unable to pinpoint the Gundam's exact location. Still, the enemy would know that they were being monitored, which meant that now was the time for Heero to make his move.

"I have my firing lane," he said to his friends, "Locking in now."

Technically speaking he didn't have a clear shot towards the enemy force; all the scrap of the Debris Belt was a considerable obstruction. However, with Duo acting as a spotter combined with the full power of the upgraded Twin Buster Rife, the floating chunks of metal may as well have been little more than confetti.

Raising the Twin Buster Rifle and using the data provided by Duo, Heero acquired his targets. The barrels of the fearsome weapon began to glow with golden-yellow light, its unholy might about to be unleashed in its full glory.

A few seconds later a familiar beeping came from his console; it was time.

Letting out the breath he'd been holding, Heero pulled the trigger…

…and cut loose at _maximum power_.

….

"Captain!" cried the _Minerva_'s sensor officer, "Massive energy spike coming from the Albion!"

"My god," said Talia softly, "Is he really…"

It was really a reflexive utterance on her part; she knew _exactly _what was about to happen. After all, she'd seen it in person in the last war.

The glow at the barrel-points of the Albion's rifle reached its peak…

…and then the power that had destroyed Avalon and GENESIS was unleashed.

It was like a second sun had burst into existence in front of the _Minerva _and then immediately flung itself towards their enemies. The blast was blinding, and Talia could've sworn that it was actually _larger _than the ones that she had seen in the last war. A massive tsunami of lethal light rampaged across space, washing over and disintegrating any scrap metal in its way before engulfing the forward ranks of the approaching mobile armors and mobile suits. Even the carnage it wrought against them wasn't enough; the blast kept going until it slammed into the front line of the enemy's warships.

When the light finally faded enough for Talia and her crew to assess the impact they were stunned at what they saw. The blast had carved a large tunnel through the Debris Belt, big enough for even the _Minerva _to pass through with room to spare. Checking the data on her screen, Talia was shocked to see that the wave of energy had consumed 19 Moebius units, 21 Dagger Ls, and a staggering five _Typhoon_-class destroyers.

"Such power!" said Arthur in shock.

"Impressive…" said Durandal.

"What else did you expect?" asked Lady Cagalli, who had been allowed to stay on the bridge to observe the battle that her bodyguard would be taking part in, "This is _Heero Yuy _you're dealing with here."

She sounded confident, but as Talia stole a look at her she could see that the Orb Union's leader's face had paled slightly, and her eyes were wide. Even her familiarity with the famous pilot apparently hadn't completely prepared her for this level of destruction.

"Ma'am," said the sensor officer, "the Gundams are advancing! They're moving to engage the enemy head on!"

Talia nodded. "Meyrin, get our mobile suits in the air. Blast load-out for Impulse, Gunner for Lunamaria, Blaze for Rey and Athrun! Take us forward and acquire targets as fast as you can!"

"Roger that!" the young woman replied.

_Twelve ships left_, Talia thought, _along with over a hundred mobile suits and mobile armors. We're going to have our hands full here…_

….

In the cockpit of the Nosferatu Nazara snarled as he looked upon the aftermath of Wing Zero's attack. The blast from the mobile suit's unholy rifle had ripped apart the front ranks of their mobile suit and mobile armor formations, and with five of its destroyers knocked out in one shot Force Beta was now scrambling to regroup. Nazara had been well aware of the power of Wing Zero's rifle, but this blast had actually seemed to be _stronger _than those recorded in the last war. On top of that the degree of accuracy in the attack was incredible, all the more so when the distance of the shot combined with the obstruction of the Debris Belt was taken into account.

_There's only one way he could've made a shot like that_, the Colonel thought, _He has a spotter!_

"Scan the surrounding area!" he ordered over the main tactical channel, "There must be a mobile suit nearby that guided that shot!"

While his forces searched for the spotter Nazara checked up on his personal detachment. Jetstream Sam was naturally in one piece, as was Stella. To his relief Irina and Gregory were all right as well; he would need them and the rest of his force if he was to stand a chance at prevailing today.

The two Extended were flying unique hybrid models based on mobile suits developed in the last war. Irina's mobile suit was the GAT-X134 Calamity-Aile. It utilized the frame of the GAT-X131 Calamity and was an effort to merge its firepower with the agility of the Aile Striker pack. The dark blue mobile suit kept its chest-mounted Scylla 580mm multi-phase energy cannon, along with the two shoulder-mounted Schlag 125mm high-energy long-range beam cannons. It also utilized the same shield mounted on the left arm with the built-in Kaefer Zwei 115mm dual ram cannon. However, it lacked the large bazooka of the original unit. Mounted on the shoulders just beneath the two cannons was a modified Aile pack with improved mobility over the original design and capable of supporting full atmospheric flight. The pack also included beam sabers and the 57mm beam rifle used on the original Aile Strike.

Gregory's mobile suit was the dark green GAT-X259 Forbidden-Sword. This one was based off of the older GAT-X252 Forbidden, and it maintained that mobile suit's signature backpack with the Geschmeidig Panzer energy deflection system, twin Eckzahn 88mm railguns, and the Hresvelgr plasma induction cannon. The arm cannons had been removed, although the unit still wielded two head-mounted Igelstellung 75mm CIWS. Replacing the metal scythe used by the original Forbidden was the exact same type of anti-ship sword used by the Sword Striker pack.

Nazara had his doubts about how well the machines would perform against the revived Wing Zero and the four new mobile suits flying with it. Still, they would serve as useful distractions and would be able to give the other Phantom Pain mobile suits the openings they needed to attack Wing Zero and its comrades and destroy them.

"Stella," he said, "Are you ready?"

The blonde girl appeared on his screen and nodded. "I am… Colonel."

_Still hesitant_, he thought, _That won't do. I guess I'll have to nudge her a little more._

"The monsters are coming, Stella," said the Colonel, "The one you and I fought yesterday is leading them. Fight with everything you've got, Stella, or the monster will kill us."

Stella shook her head. "No! I won't let that happen!"

Nazara smiled. "Of course you won't, my dear Stella. We'll stop him here!"

"Yes!" said Stella with a smile, "I'll do my best!"

Nazara nodded. "I know you will."

_Good girl_, he thought, _Now that you're stable I won't have to worry about you. The other two might still be a problem though…_

"Gregory, Irina," he said, "Stay focused on the mission, do you understand? If you don't then there _will _be consequences."

Two faces appeared on his screen. The first was a dark-skinned sixteen-year-old boy with brown eyes, while the second was a girl with short black hair and harsh blue eyes.

"Understood," grumbled Gregory.

"All right," pouted Irina.

_Not quite what I was hoping for_, he thought, _but it will have to do. Extended can be such a pain sometimes. So difficult to manage effectively…_

Checking his sensors, Nazara could see Wing Zero and three more of the new mobile suits from yesterday leading the charge toward his force. The _Minerva _was some distance behind them, and it had just launched two ZAKU Warriors, a ZAKU Phantom, and the fourth prototype from yesterday. Those four rear units weren't a big concern to the Colonel; it was Wing Zero and the other units at the front of the pack that were his top priority.

His eyes suddenly narrowed as he realized that something was off.

There were only _three _of the other new mobile suits flying up front with Wing Zero.

Yesterday there had been _four_.

"Shit!" he snarled, "Where's the black one?"

It was then that he heard a male voice come over an open channel, one that he recognized from yesterday's battle.

"_Say hello to the God of Death!_"

….

**Start "Using The Cloak Of Darkness"**

With a mighty swing, Deathscythe Omega brought its signature weapon straight down upon the bridge of a _Typhoon_-class destroyer. The emerald energy blade ripped through the ship's command center, and as it went up in flames the Gundam's cloak deactivated, leaving the God of Death with a fiery backdrop for his mobile suit.

_Now __**that**_, thought Duo with a chuckle, _is how you make an entrance!_

As the warship fell away from him, drifting out of control, Duo hit his thrusters and ascended. It was a timely move; the other nearby warships were already training their guns on him and opening fire.

"Damn," he said as he weaved through their salvos, "Opening up so close to a drifting ally… these guys are cold!"

Evading fire from the warships wasn't a big challenge for the God of Death, but some of the enemy mobile suits were already turning around and coming back to engage him. He could take them, but it would be best to put some distance between himself and the warships to do that; getting caught in a crossfire wouldn't be fun. Besides, if he mixed it up with the mobile suits up close then the enemy ships couldn't fire without risking hitting their own machines… although he wasn't entirely sure that they were averse to taking that chance.

_All right, Heero_, he thought, _I've drawn some of the heat off of you. Have fun with the rest of them!_

Between Heero's opening shot and Duo's sneak attack the enemy was in complete disarray. The bulk of their mobile suits, along with the A.I. mobile armors, had naturally been at the front of their force, charging out to meet Wing Zero Albion and the other Gundams. The blast from the Twin Buster Rifle had ripped a big hole in their ranks and had wiped out half of the _Typhoon_-class destroyers, though these were not impossible losses for the enemy to recover from. However, Duo's strike after the enemy's smaller units had already begun moving forward meant that their foes' were now frantically adjusting from not one but two surprise attacks that had hit in rapid succession.

Out ahead Duo saw Wing Zero Albion was leading the other Gundams towards the enemy. Practically neck and neck with it was the Altron Custom; Duo was sure that Wufei was raring to go. Close behind those two were Sandrock Saladin and Heavyarms Arsenal. The other four mobile suits from the _Minerva _were scrambling to make up the distance between them and the unfolding battle, but Duo had to wonder if he and his friends were going to leave them any more than scraps from this target rich environment.

Duo smirked as a squad of Dagger Ls approached him; it was time to go to work.

With a broad swing of his beam scythe he sliced one of the attacking machines in half. Whirling the weapon around to fend off the others off he then brought it down on the head of another Dagger L and ripped it apart. A third machine lashed out with its violet beam saber, but Duo swiftly brought his scythe around to deflect the attack before tearing into his foe.

Lock-on alarms told him that one of the remaining four destroyers had acquired him as a target for its missiles. The black warship opened fire, and Duo decided with a grin that it was time to unleash a nasty surprise on his attacker. As the warheads approached Duo used his Hyper Jammer ECM Suite to hack roughly half of the incoming missiles. The warheads affected by the hack turned upon the ship that had fired them and streaked back towards the destroyer, while Duo shot a few more down with his Vulcan Guns and evaded the rest. He was pleased to see the hacked missiles hammer the black destroyer that had launched them, and while they didn't take out the ship they did cause considerable damage to its upper deck.

Meanwhile Heero and the others were hitting the front ranks of the enemy force. Wing Zero was opening up with its machine cannons and railguns and had already taken down two Dagger Ls and three of the Moebius A.I. units. Altron Custom's beam trident was whirling like an emerald cyclone, slicing two Dagger Ls in half before unleashing its Dragon Fangs and crushing two Moebius drones. Trowa was cutting loose with his artillery, and with a storm of bullets and missiles he shredded no fewer than four Dagger Ls and seven A.I. mobile armors. Not to be counted out was Quatre, and with Sandrock Saladin's Heat Shotels he eviscerated three Dagger Ls in a series of brutal chops before taking down two Moebius units that had tried to flank him.

Their dominance against the cannon fodder was undeniable, but Duo could pick out a few unique units in the menagerie that looked like they would put up more of a fight. As he cut down two more Dagger Ls he could see the violet unit with the gun-drones that Heero had fought yesterday making a beeline for Wing Zero Albion, while the black and red unit with the beam katana was heading for Wufei. The stolen Gaia appeared to be backing up the violet unit, though Duo was confident that Heero could take on both machines. His eyes narrowed as he saw that the dark blue and dark green units that had originally been flying with the forward force had come about and were rushing for him.

Duo smirked as he ripped apart another Dagger L with his scythe. "You want a piece of me? Bring it on!"

Both machines replied with fire. The dark blue mobile suit opened up with its shoulder cannons, chest cannon, and beam rifle, while the dark green unit cut loose with its railguns and plasma cannon. Gunning his engines, Duo weaved through the hail of fire, and his eyes widened in surprise as he saw the plasma beam fired by the green unit actually curve in an attempt to track him.

_He can redirect his energy shot_, thought Duo, _That's a nasty trick!_

The two unique mobile suits weren't the only units gunning for him. Several Dagger Ls were moving in as well, and Duo knew that he would have to stay on his toes in order to avoid getting flanked.

He rushed in at the green unit and took a swing with his beam scythe. The enemy responded by blocking the attack with its anti-ship sword. Before it could counter Duo broke off and charged the dark blue unit. If he could close the gap that thing would be all his.

The heavy artillery unit poured fire at him, this time adding the twin guns mounted in its shield to the mix. Duo got close, but at the last moment he was forced to dive to avoid a curving beam of plasma from the green mobile suit.

"You two aren't bad," he said with a smirk, "Too bad for you I'm better!"

Both machines charged at him, firing as they went. They weren't the only ones moving in to attack; the Dagger Ls had joined the fray now too, and they were firing away with their beam rifles.

"Sorry, guys," said Duo as he rushed the weaker units, "but you're not invited to this party!"

With a broad swing of his beam scythe he took down two Dagger Ls before whirling around and slicing a third in half. He closed the cloak of Deathscythe Omega to block fire from additional units before charging them and cutting down two more machines. A vertical chop destroyed one more and gave him the room he needed to once again face the two unique models.

He reopened his cloak and went evasive as both machines opened up with everything they had. The dark green unit was out in front while the dark blue one supported it from the rear, and Duo made the former his first target. Gunning his engines, he weaved through particle beams, railgun rounds, and curving plasma before reaching blade range of his adversary. The green mobile suit managed to bring its anti-ship sword up to block his first strike, but a twist of the scythe brought its emerald blade around and into the backpack of Duo's foe. Sparks flew from the device, especially around the plasma cannon, but the mobile suit was not defeated quite yet.

Duo dived to avoid fire from the dark blue artillery unit before redoubling his assault on the green mobile suit. He rushed back in and took another swing of his beam scythe. This time his strike caught the metal core of the unit's anti-ship sword and broke the weapon in half. Another swing brought his emerald scythe right into the mobile suit's cockpit and ripped it apart.

Duo grinned as he turned on the blue unit. "You're next, pal!"

With the destruction of its comrade, the blue mobile suit pulled out and activated a violet beam saber. It charged in at Duo, opening up with every gun it had as it closed into saber range. The volume of fire was impressive, but Duo was still able to work his way through the barrage. Raising his beam scythe, he blocked the mobile suit's opening strike before countering. His strike cut through the mobile suit's left shoulder, taking out the cannon mounted their along with the unit's arm and one of the wings.

The damage was serious, but it did not deter his adversary. The dark blue mobile suit charged right at him, without a hint of planning. For Duo it was a relatively simple matter to deflect the mobile suit's beam saber strike before countering with his scythe, slicing off the unit's head before whirling his blade around again for a slash through the machine's torso. The unit went up in flames as Duo immediately turned around and began engaging more Dagger Ls.

"Come on," he said with a smirk, "Who wants to dance next with the God of Death?"

**End "Using The Cloak Of Darkness"**

….

**Start "The Wings Of A Boy Who Killed Adolescence"**

With a burst from his machine cannons Heero eliminated the last of Moebius A.I. units. A precise salvo from his railguns took down two Dagger Ls. His beam saber flashed in a green blur as it cut down one enemy mobile suit after another. The Gundam pilots had utterly mauled the front ranks of the enemy forces, but more mobile suits were incoming, and among them Heero could see some familiar faces from the day before.

_The gunbarrel unit and the Gaia_, he thought, _and the Desperado mobile suit. Looks like it's time for round two._

Raising the Twin Buster Rifle, Heero sighted in and cut loose. A fresh blast of energy ripped through space, and while the three custom units were not hit the wave of hellfire took down seven Dagger Ls before slamming into one of the four remaining _Typhoon_-class destroyers and turned it into a fireball. The blast had the added benefit of scattering more enemy machines, giving Heero a bit of room to plan his next move.

The violet unit and the Gaia were clearly coming for him, while it looked like the Desperado mobile suit was setting up to engage Wufei. Duo was still tearing through the Dagger L teams that had turned back to fight him, while Quatre and Trowa were shredding their way through more machines. Athrun and the three ZAFT pilots from the _Minerva _would soon be entering the fray, while the _Minerva _was trying to set itself up for an attack on the enemy warships that did not endanger any of its mobile suits.

Cutting down two more Dagger Ls with his beam saber, Heero increased his speed and rushed to meet the Gaia and the gunbarrel unit head on. The two mobile suits wasted no time in opening fire on him, and Heero brought his outer wings forward and activated their energy shields to deflect the barrage. Continuing to move forward he saw the two of them split up to form a classic pincer movement. It was easy to disrupt it; he fired a low-power blast at the Gaia, forcing it to go evasive and giving him a bit of space to engage the gunbarrel unit.

His foe from yesterday immediately deployed its four replacement gunbarrels and opened up with them, its beam rifle, and linear guns. Heero rapidly closed the distance, weaving his way through the barrage before thrusting forward with his beam saber. The enemy expertly deflected the blow, and Heero knew that a flank attack from the gunbarrels was coming. He dived to the lower right, avoiding getting caught in their crossfire and slicing through one of the gunbarrels with his beam saber.

_Just like yesterday_, he thought, _I'll wear him down._

He quickly turned around to block a beam saber strike from the Gaia. Counterattacking with a horizontal slash he managed to push his enemy back before climbing to avoid more fire from the gunbarrel unit. Both the violet machine and the Gaia came at him with guns blazing, forcing Heero to go evasive. The gunbarrel unit came in hard and made a vertical chop with its beam saber. Heero parried the blow before breaking off to the right to avoid getting caught from behind by the Gaia.

_Okay_, he thought as he dodged beam and linear gun fire, _this might be a little harder than yesterday._

He opened up with the Twin Buster Rifle, forcing his foes to go evasive and buying himself a bit of room. Heero then took aim with his railguns and fired at the Gaia. The slugs wouldn't break through its Phase Shift Armor, but that wasn't the point. The impacts would drain energy and knock the mobile suit off balance, giving Heero a little more time to engage the gunbarrel unit.

Gunning his engines, Heero once again rushed in at the violet mobile suit. The enemy immediately responded with a hail of particle beam and linear gun fire, but it was already easier for Heero to make his way through the bombardment thanks to having taken out one of the gunbarrels. Reaching saber range, Heero made a diagonal slash with his emerald blade, one that the enemy swiftly parried. The Gundam pilot quickly followed that up with a thrust, but once again the enemy was able to deflect the attack.

Diving to avoid getting flanked by the Gaia, Heero set his sights on the stolen mobile suit and opened up with the Twin Buster Rifle. The enemy was able to evade the shot but was put on the defensive, and Heero used the opening to fire another blast, this time at the violet mobile suit. That one too managed to dodge the shot, and Heero decided to use the chance he had to rush the Gaia.

He gunned his engines and came in hard. Raising his beam saber he brought it down hard in a vertical strike. The Gaia was able to block the attack, but the sheer power behind the blow pushed it back. Heero made a second attack, this one a diagonal slash, and while the enemy was able to deflect it the strike once again pushed the mobile suit back. The Gundam pilot was forced to break off before he could make a third; the gunbarrel unit was coming in fast and he didn't want to get caught from behind.

He climbed to put some distance between himself and the two custom mobile suits. The move put him in good position to deal with another squadron of Dagger Ls that was trying to get in on the action. Heero cut loose with his machine cannons and railguns, ripping apart four machines with precision fire.

He didn't have time to pat himself on the back for the quick kills; both the gunbarrel mobile suit and the Gaia were coming back in for more.

_These two don't know when to quit_, he thought as he brought his wings around and activated their energy shields to deflect beam and linear gun fire, _Too bad for them it's going to get them killed._

**End "The Wings Of A Boy Who Killed Adolescence"**

….

Whirling his beam trident like an emerald tornado, Wufei was eviscerating any Dagger L unfortunate enough to engage him. Two of the black machines went down in the blink of an eye, the latest victims of the Gundam pilot's lethal close-quarters-combat skills.

"None of you," he growled, "are worthy of fighting Nataku!"

Releasing his Dragon Fangs, the L5 native demolished two more mobile suits. Several more machines opened up with their beam rifles, and Wufei put his Gundam's upgraded engines to good use. Blue fire blazed from the powerful thrusters, and Wufei rushed across space like a comet. Charging his foes far too fast for them to react, he plunged his beam trident into the cockpit of a Dagger L. Withdrawing the emerald blade as the machine exploded, he whirled around and cut another in half with a lightning fast slash. Diving to evade more beam fire he repositioned himself and once again let fly with the Dragon Fangs. The green serpents plunged into the cockpits of two more mobile suits, turning them into fireballs.

_This is hardly a battle_, he thought with disgust, _I feel more like a butcher than a warrior ripping apart these guys. Isn't there anyone here that can _actually _fight?_

It looked like at least Heero had found opponents who could last for more than a few seconds; his one-against-two fight with the gunbarrel unit and the stolen Gaia was still in full swing. That wasn't too surprising to Wufei though. Wing Zero's pilot had always been able to find the strongest opponents on a battlefield; his repeated clashes with Zechs Merquise were proof of that. Wufei was glad to see that his old comrade hadn't lost any of his skills, but if he couldn't find challenging foes of his own he was going to be very irritated. Even Romefeller and White Fang's Mobile Dolls could put up a better fight than what these pathetic pilots were showing him.

He wasn't the only one tearing up the opposition. As Wufei cut down another Dagger L with his beam trident he could see Sandrock Saladin and Heavyarms Arsenal utterly mauling the enemy squadrons. Trowa was putting out a volume of fire quite worthy of his mobile suit's namesake; the Gundam's Gatling Guns, large and small, filled space with bullets and were turning enemy units into Swiss cheese. The Double Assault Beam Cannon mounted on the Gundam's left arm was getting a workout as well, completely blowing away any mobile suit unfortunate enough to get caught in its crosshairs. While Trowa was dominating his opponents at range, Quatre was ripping apart his adversaries up close. The wicked Heat Shotels of Gundam Sandrock Saladin cut down one Dagger L after another like the scimitars of the Ottomans. A few mobile suits managed to lash out with their beam sabers before being cut down, but if they thought that their energy blades would be able to cut through the Gundam's swords they were in for a rude awakening as the micro-energy field emitters within the blades activated and blocked their attacks. Their shock would not last long; they were cut down by the Heat Shotels mere seconds later.

As Wufei stabbed a Dagger L through the cockpit an alarm went off. Checking his sensors, he smiled as he saw a new mobile suit heading his way. It was the unit that had faced off against the Impulse in yesterday's battle and had kicked the ZAFT pilot's ass. Its beam katana was ignited and the mobile suit was rushing for him head-on.

"All right," he said as he turned to meet this new foe, "Let's see if you can do better than these guys!"

It was as if the black and red mobile suit had heard his challenge. The unit raised its blade and brought it down hard, and while Wufei was able to deflect the attack he was impressed at the speed and precision behind it. He immediately countered, whirling his twin beam trident around in a swift slash. His adversary expertly parried the strike and made a counterattack of their own with a quick thrust. Wufei was able to redirect the attack and struck back in kind with a thrust, but the enemy had pulled back before the blow could connect.

_Not bad_, thought Wufei as he charged forward, _Let's see what else you got!_

His foe was more than ready to oblige him. The enemy dived and tried to hit Wufei from below, but he was able to respond by swinging his beam trident down. His adversary caught the blow on his blade and was able to counter, but Wufei deflected the attack and struck back again. This time as his enemy blocked the attack Wufei added the left Dragon Fang to the mix, sending the weapon out to crush his foe. The weapon hit the mobile suit in the shoulder but it didn't have any effect against the unit's Phase Shift Armor.

"Interesting," said Wufei as he pulled back the weapon and lashed out again with his beam trident, "It looks like the Dragon Fangs won't be of much use here."

He didn't mind that inconvenience though. Quite the contrary; it would make for a better fight.

_A fight_, he mused as he crossed blades with his foe again, _yeah… I think that's why I really came out here._

Like the others he had wanted to find Heero, but for Wufei what was really driving him was not the desire to bring the lost Gundam pilot back to the After Colony world. In the two and a half years that Heero had been gone Wufei had come to a different conclusion than his fellow Gundam pilots about their old comrade. In Wufei's mind, if Heero had wanted to return to their old world, he would've done so already; his combined skills, intellect, and the raw power of Wing Zero left no doubt in Wufei's opinion that the Perfect Soldier would've been more than capable of such a feat.

So why had he stayed?

Wufei had found the answer in his discontent with the peace that had followed the end of the Eve Wars. In the immediate aftermath of that final battle over two years ago the pilot from L5 had been pleased at the progress made by the world, by humanity as a whole, but after a while something had begun to feel out of place.

_He _had felt out of place.

So many lives had been sacrificed to achieve peace, and while memorials had been constructed and speeches given it felt like most people just wanted to forget the great ordeal that had brought them to this point and move on. Those soldiers that had survived the conflict, whether they were OZ or White Fang, had also seemed to be forgotten by the people of the world. All that they had endured and fought for seemed to hardly matter to the civilians who had moved forward, not bothering to stop and ask what to do for soldiers who now had to struggle to find a purpose beyond the battlefields that they had known for so long.

_Peace at the expense of lives_, he thought bitterly as his beam trident met the enemy's beam katana yet again, _and at the expense of the honor and dignity of those that survived… is that really peace? The world owed its soldiers so much, regardless of the side they fought on in our war, and yet it never even paused to consider what the new age would mean for them. It simply used them and them discarded them. They were used as weapons and then cast aside… as were the five of us. _We _earned the peace, not the people; they simply accepted it from us and took it for granted._

Wufei had spent the time between the war and the journey to the Cosmic Era maintaining Nataku and trying to fight alongside his friends to protect the peace, but he couldn't find the same sense of purpose that they could in that. His mind kept going back to the battlefields of old… and to his final match with Treize Khushrenada.

It was a match that even now Wufei considered to be a defeat for himself despite the fact that Treize was the one that had fallen.

_ Damn it, Treize_, he thought as he continued to trade strikes with his foe, _You beat me and quit…_

Treize had fulfilled his grand design; creating a battle that would shatter mankind's very will to fight. In the ultimate gesture of acceptance of war's brutality and futility he had let Wufei have a rematch with him and then let the Gundam pilot run him through with Nataku's beam trident. In death he remained victorious, and that had haunted Wufei ever since. At the same time, though, Wufei could not deny the sense of fulfillment he had felt in fighting Treize in both of their duels. He was one of the few foes that had truly earned Wufei's respect, and part of him had been looking for someone like that ever since.

If there was one thing peace had taught Wufei, it was simply how ill-suited he was for it. Even the times he had helped the other Gundam pilots in their peacekeeping efforts could not make up for how lost he'd felt now that the war that had so very much defined him was over.

_That was how you felt, wasn't it, Heero?_, he thought as he saw Wing Zero's pilot continue his clash with his two foes, _You were always at the fiercest part of the battlefield, and you found the ultimate opponent in Zechs Merquise. There's a reason you're the greatest of our number; you were born for the battlefield. You thrived on it in our last war. You and I are the same; we can only feel alive on the battlefield._

It was that reasoning that had led Wufei to his conclusion; the reason Heero had not returned to the After Colony world was because he had found a new battlefield. He had rediscovered what had given him purpose and fulfillment in life. A return to the battlefield had to be better than the aimless peace that Wufei had found himself in, a peace that warriors had won but civilians had simply taken for themselves while casting those who had brought it about aside. Fighting for a cause, for justice, and because it was what he knew best; that was something Wufei understood all too well.

_That _was why Wufei had joined this expedition. Heero hadn't gone missing; he'd gone on a journey.

A journey to a new battlefield.

And it was one that Wufei had been determined to follow him to.

To find a new cause, a new justice, to fight for.

To find a new place to belong.

That was why he found himself smiling as he continued his clash with the red and black mobile suit. The feeling that came with fighting a strong opponent was one that he hadn't felt in a long time. It took him back to his two duels with Treize, and while he hadn't yet taken the full measure of his current adversary it was clear that their skills were not to be trifled with.

_Come on_, he thought as his beam trident met the enemy's beam katana again, _Show me what sort of warriors your Cosmic Era has to offer. Show me what your world showed Heero in the Bloody Valentine War. Show me a battlefield where I can find meaning and purpose!_

_ Show me a battlefield where I can fight for true justice again!_

….

His twin Heat Shotels ripped through another Dagger L as Quatre continued to carve a path of destruction through the enemy ranks. That machine had barely exploded before Quatre brought his blades up to block a beam saber strike from another mobile suit. Quatre effortlessly blocked the attack before countering and cutting the Dagger L in half.

_It's a good thing Howard created those micro-field emitters for the Heat Shotels_, he thought, _Otherwise I'd be in real trouble._

Diving to avoid particle beam fire, Quatre found the shooter and rushed towards them. He raised both his Heat Shotels and brought them down hard, tearing right through the Dagger L. Moving swiftly to the right, he blocked a vertical strike from another Dagger L before responding with a horizontal slash and ripped it apart.

"Quatre!" yelled Trowa, "Dive!"

Quatre reflexively obeyed, and mere seconds later the space where his mobile suit had been was filled with a hail of bullets and powerful yellow beams as the Heavyarms Arsenal opened up. The pilot of Sandrock Saladin saw the barrage tear into an oncoming squad of Dagger Ls, blowing apart four of the mobile suits like a string of firecrackers. Quatre immediately ascended again to attack the stragglers and swiftly cut down two more of the black mobile suits.

"Good timing," said Quatre.

"Check it out," said Trowa, "The fleet's splitting up."

As he cut down another Dagger L Quatre saw that Trowa was right. Two of the remaining _Typhoon_-class destroyers, along with two of the _Nelson_-class battleships and the _Agamemnon_-class carrier, had broken away from the rest of the battle group. They were going on a long arc through the Debris Belt that would set them up to hit the _Minerva _from the right flank. Meanwhile Bogey One, the other _Typhoon_-class destroyer and the remaining two _Nelson_-class battleships were moving forward along their original course, while the strange gray ovoid ship that had launched the Moebius drones was hanging back to the rear.

"What's the plan?" asked Trowa as he ripped apart three Dagger Ls with micro-missiles.

"We'll hit the flanking force," Quatre replied as he hacked another Dagger L to pieces, "Athrun and the others will be joining the fray soon. They can help Heero, Duo, and Wufei deal with the rest of these guys. If _Minerva _stays on her current course she'll be able to open up on Bogey One and the other warships shortly."

"Got it," said Trowa, "I'll back you up."

Slicing another Dagger L in half, Quatre altered his course and headed towards the flanking group. Heavyarms Arsenal followed with guns blazing, mowing down two more mobile suits that attempted to catch Sandrock Saladin in a pincer attack.

_We're doing well_, thought Quatre, _but we're not done yet!_

….

"Whoa!" said Shinn as he observed the fighting, "Look at them go!"

"No kidding," said Lunamaria, "They're tearing it up!"

"Stay focused," said Rey, "We'll be in the middle of it real soon."

"He's right," said Athrun, "Cut the chatter and prepare for engagement!"

Shinn scowled but said nothing in reply. He was still trying to get over the fact that not only was the bodyguard of Orb's Chief Representative actually the famous Athrun Zala but that Captain Gladys had let him fly a ZAKU into battle today and had given him operational authority over Shinn, Lunamaria, and Rey despite the fact that he was no longer a member of ZAFT.

At least he couldn't complain about the firepower available in their group of four. At the head of the formation were Athrun and Rey, each utilizing Blaze packs for their respective ZAKU Warrior and ZAKU Phantom. Lunamaria had her custom red ZAKU Warrior outfitted with her best Wizard pack, the Gunner pack, while Shinn was utilizing the Impulse's most powerful augmentation, the Blast Silhouette pack.

The Blast Impulse was designed for all-out assault against ships and fortifications, although its raw firepower was also quite deadly against mobile suits and smaller targets. In this configuration the unit's Variable Phase Shift Armor was a mix of black, blue, white, and green. This was actually the weakest setting of the Variable Phase Shift Armor, sacrificing protection in order to provide the greatest possible amount of power to the mobile suit's heavy weapons.

Said weapons were a formidable array of cannons and missile launchers. The unit's primary weapons in this configuration were two large M2000F Kerberos high-energy long-range beam cannons, which would be slung between the mobile suit's arms and torso when in use and folded back when not. On the opposite end of those cannons were two GMF39 quadruple missile launchers holding AGM141 Firefly guided missiles, which would swing up over the mobile suit's shoulders when deployed. Usable in both configurations were two MMI-M16EX2 Deluge hyper-velocity rail cannons which were mounted over the Impulse's shoulders. Rounding out the unit's arsenal were two MA-M80 Defiant beam javelins for close-quarters-combat, which were stored in the pack when not in use. It was an impressive and powerful configuration, but it was actually Shinn's least favorite of the three Silhouette packs available for the Impulse primarily because he preferred close-quarters-combat. Still, the Captain had ordered him to sortie with this pack and in a situation like this he knew that the firepower would definitely come in handy.

"Listen up," said Athrun, "Rey and I will lead our opening attack. Shinn, you and Lunamaria use your artillery and back us up!"

"Got it!" said Lunamaria.

"Fine," grumbled Shinn.

_I'm supposed to be a lead pilot_, he mentally fumed, _I'm not backup, damn it!_

Ever since the Albion and the other four Gundams had shown up on the scene, Shinn had felt like he and his fellow ZAFT pilots had been playing second fiddle. They were supposed to be ZAFT Reds, the elite pilots of the PLANT military, and yet it seemed like they had been relegated to the role of supporting five paramilitary pilots. What stung just as bad was the fact that Captain Gladys had decided to put a civilian in charge of their team. Athrun Zala may have been a famous war hero but he was no longer part of ZAFT. Hell, legally speaking he was still considered a traitor!

Shinn shook his head. For now he had no choice but to suck it up and fight like this. He was at least determined to make sure that today's battle went better than yesterday's engagement had. If he could truly demonstrate his skills and the power of the Blast Impulse then maybe that would be enough to alter the balance between the ZAFT pilots and Heero Yuy's team.

Of course, if the way this battle was currently going was any indication, Shinn would have a hard time proving his worth compared to that of the Demon Lord of Avalon. Heero's opening shot alone had wiped out half of the enemy fleet's destroyers and dozens of mobile suits and armors. The Albion's pilot hadn't slacked off since then either, and even now he was still mixing it up with both the stolen Gaia and the gunbarrel mobile suit.

Shinn had been looking forward to a rematch with the pilot that had defeated him yesterday, even if the Blast Silhouette was not his preferred pack for that kind of fight. However, the black and red mobile suit with the skull on its chest was already engaged with the Altron Custom in a furious duel. The green Gundam's speed easily put the Force Impulse to shame, and unlike Shinn in yesterday's battle Wufei had taken no damage so far and seemed to be fighting his foe on equal terms.

_Damn it!_, Shinn silently fumed, _It should be _me _fighting that guy again! I have to get back at him for yesterday! Why does Wufei get a crack at him instead? It's not fair!_

Even with the Albion and Altron Custom caught up in their own private engagements that still left Deathscythe Omega, Heavyarms Arsenal, and Sandrock Saladin to rip into the enemy fleet. It had been thanks to Duo that Heero had been able to make his powerful opening shot, and since then the pilot of Deathscythe Omega had torn his way through the enemy's rear mobile suit teams. Meanwhile Quatre and Trowa were ripping apart Dagger Ls as they rushed to meet the group of warships that had broken off from Bogey One's battle group, and despite being outnumbered and outgunned neither pilot was requesting backup. If yesterday's performance was any indication, they probably didn't need it.

"What's this feeling?" he heard Rey say, "That purple machine…"

"Hey, Rey!" said Shinn, puzzled at his friend's behavior, "What's up?"

There was a pause before Rey responded. "It's nothing."

"Check it out!" said Lunamaria, "The Gaia's breaking off from the Albion! It's heading right for us!"

So it was, and it was hardly alone; several Dagger Ls were joining it, and they all were heading right for Shinn's group.

"Okay," said Athrun, "Rey, can you solo the Gaia?"

"Affirmative," Rey replied.

"Good," said Athrun, "Keep that thing busy. The rest of us will punch through these Dagger Ls and attack Bogey One and the other capital ships directly! I'll take point. Shinn, Lunamaria, provide fire support."

"Understood!" said Lunamaria.

Shinn nodded. "Okay."

Rey's white ZAKU Phantom immediately broke away and moved to intercept the Gaia. Shinn's friend opened up with the Blaze pack's missile launchers, and a horde of warheads flew forth, ripping apart three Dagger Ls that were out ahead of the Gaia. Other missiles streaked towards the stolen prototype, but they were either shot down by the unit's CIWS and beam rifle or detonated against its Variable Phase Shift Armor, not doing any damage. As the ZAKU Phantom rushed in it ignited its beam tomahawk, while the Gaia already had its beam saber activated.

"Here we go!" shouted Athrun.

Shinn saw the former ZAFT ace's green ZAKU Warrior open up with the missile launchers of its Blaze pack. The swarm of missiles destroyed two Dagger Ls while the rest were either shot down by other mobile suits or missed their mark. Athrun immediately followed up the barrage with fire from his beam rifle, and another Dagger L fell from a precise shot to its cockpit.

Both Shinn and Lunamaria took that as their cue to cut loose. Shinn was eager to tear into the enemy and as soon as his heavy weapons swung forward he opened up with both Kerberos beam cannons and Deluge rail cannons. Crimson fire and yellow slugs flew through space, and four Dagger Ls were obliterated under the barrage. His fire was swiftly joined by a blast from Lunamaria's heavy rifle, and the red stream of energy blew apart two more mobile suits.

"Nice!" said Lunamaria.

Shinn nodded. "Let's keep it up!"

Up ahead he saw that Athrun had activated his beam tomahawk and was cutting down another Dagger L. Shinn saw a few mobile suits coming in from Athrun's right flank and he opened up again with his beam cannons and railguns. The combined streams of energy and physical slugs destroyed three more Dagger Ls, while two more fell to another blast from Lunamaria's rifle.

Checking up on Rey, Shinn saw that he was engaged in a furious close-quarters fight with the Gaia. The stolen prototype may have been more advanced than Rey's ZAKU Phantom but Rey wasn't letting that deter him. His Blaze pack's additional thrusters gave him a crucial boost in mobility, and he was using that to full effect to stay ahead of the Gaia's fire, while the two shoulder-mounted shields came in handy for blocking the beams that Rey could not dodge. Rey's beam tomahawk repeatedly clashed with the Gaia's beam saber and both machines traded beam rifle fire, but so far neither mobile suit could gain the upper hand.

Deciding to switch things up, Shinn released the two heavy beam cannons, letting them swing up and over the Impulse's shoulders and bringing the missile launchers mounted on the other ends of them to bear. At the same time he grabbed the twin beam javelins and activated them. Now wielding two spears of violet light, Shinn braced himself for the next round.

He cut loose with his missile launchers. Eight warheads flew forth, four of them connecting with a Dagger L apiece while the other four were shot down by CIWS and beam fire from other enemy mobile suits. As Lunamaria took down two more machines with her heavy Orthros cannon Shinn rushed forward and impaled a Dagger L on his beam javelins. Cutting loose with his railguns, he took down another Dagger L before blocking a beam saber strike from another machine with his javelins before stabbing it through the cockpit.

"Good job, Shinn!" said Lunamaria, "We're on a roll!"

Shinn smiled. "I'm just getting started!"

….

_Very impressive, Heero Yuy_, thought Talia Gladys as she observed the unfolding carnage, _A simple yet quite effective plan… and now it's the Minerva's turn to join the fray!_

The corridor that the Albion had blasted through the Debris Belt was where the bulk of the mobile suit combat was taking place; there was no way that Talia could fire through there without the risk of friendly fire. Instead she had taken the _Minerva _just beyond the left edge of the corridor, using the floating scraps of metal to provide some cover as it moved in to attack Bogey One's force.

It was fortunate that the enemy fleet had split into two flotillas; it would make her strike much easier to pull off. Talia nodded with approval as she saw Heavyarms Arsenal and Sandrock Saladin engaging the flotilla that had tried to move around the main fight to flank her warship. Quatre's Gundam was carving through one Dagger L after another while Trowa was already tearing into a _Typhoon_-class destroyer with a hail of bullets, beams, and missiles. Explosions ripped across the vessel's starboard side, opening it up like a can of sardines. The remaining destroyer, the two battleships and the carrier filled the sky with beams, missiles, and CIWS rounds in an attempt to take down the two Gundams that were attacking them, but their efforts were to no avail.

Back in the central brawl she saw Deathscythe Omega continue to maul any Dagger L that was unfortunate enough to get within reach of its emerald blade. The black Gundam was swift and lethal, with a string of explosions from fallen mobile suits left in its wake as it provided a potent distraction for the Dagger Ls. Heero and Wufei continued to wage their respective duels against the violet gunbarrel machine and the black and red mobile suit from yesterday's battle, tying up the formidable units and giving Athrun's team room to aid Duo in destroying more Dagger Ls as they drove head-on towards Bogey One's flotilla.

"Arthur," said Talia, "do we have an active firing solution yet?"

"We will soon," her XO replied, "The _Typhoon_-class destroyer in Bogey One's flotilla is the closest target."

Talia nodded. "As soon as you have a lock, open up with the Tristans and Isolde. Save the Tannhäuser for the larger ships."

"Aye, Captain!" said Arthur.

"Meyrin," said Talia, "contact Athrun's team. As soon as they punch through the Dagger Ls have them strike Bogey One! They have to take out its weapons and engines; we need it intact!"

"Understood, Captain!" said Meyrin.

"Captain!" cried the sensor officer, "The modified _Salvager_-class ship at the back of the enemy force is beginning to pull away!"

"Should we target that ship instead, Captain?" asked Arthur.

Talia shook her head. "Its armaments are primarily defensive; the only heavy artillery it has is the ventral dual beam cannon. It's not a threat to us; focus on the enemy's pure combat vessels."

"It may have valuable intel aboard it, Talia," Durandal chimed in, "That vessel did launch the unmanned Moebius units, after all."

"That may be," said Talia, "but it's not the ship we're after here. Bogey One is our top priority, and cutting down her escorts is key to getting to her. We're concentrating our efforts on that… unless you're ordering me to do otherwise, Chairman."

Durandal shook his head. "The battlefield is your realm, Talia. Act as you see fit."

Talia sighed with relief. "Thank you, Chairman."

"Captain!" yelled Arthur, "Firing solutions locked in on the destroyer!"

Talia nodded. "Open fire!"

The _Minerva_'s formidable beam cannons and triple gun. Emerald beams and yellow shells raced across space, and the barrage slammed into the destroyer's upper hull. The enemy ship's topside guns were blown apart, and a follow-up salvo destroyed the bridge.

"Target's command center is neutralized!" cried the sensor operator, "The destroyer's drifting!"

"Excellent!" said Arthur.

"Well done," said Durandal with a smile.

Talia was going to admonish them for celebrating too early, but the enemy beat her to the punch. The two _Nelson_-class battleships and Bogey One opened up with their heavy weapons, filling space with beams and missiles. Since Talia had taken the _Minerva _out of her exposed position in the corridor and into the swirling scrap of the Debris Belt she had some cover, but the vessel still shook as the enemy's return fire struck her armor.

"Return fire at will!" Talia ordered as she braced herself against her chair, "Damage report!"

"Hull's holding so far!" replied one of her subordinates.

_So far_, she thought as her ship traded fire with the enemy trio, _but that could change all too quickly…_

….

Nazara grimaced as the Nosferatu lost a second gunbarrel to Wing Zero's beam saber. He still had the two upper attack drones, but he could not deny that the momentum was with his enemy.

"Come on," he growled as he poured beam and linear gun fire at his foe, "I'm not done yet, Heero Yuy!"

Just like yesterday, his barrage could not touch Wing Zero. The combination of the upgraded mobile suit's incredible agility and the two energy shields in the outer wings made it fiendishly difficult to attack, and all that wasn't including the phenomenal skill of its legendary pilot.

_Two years away from the battlefield has not dulled his edge in the slightest_, he thought, _and I have no subordinates in this engagement that can hold their own against him. Well, perhaps Minuano, but I'd rather avoid asking for his help when I'm already in a duel. He'd never let me hear the end of it._

This battle was supposed to be a trap for the _Minerva _and Wing Zero's new squadron, but instead it had been the Demon Lord of Avalon that had sprung a surprise attack with his guided long-range blast. The decloaking black mobile suit that had served as Heero Yuy's spotter had only thrown the Black Fleet's Force Beta into further chaos as it had made its strike after the bulk of Nazara's units had already moved forward to engage Wing Zero, and that was before the other three unique mobile suits of Wing Zero's team had entered the fray.

Sending Stella away to engage the three ZAKUs and the fourth prototype may have made tactical and strategic sense, but it had also made Nazara's task much more difficult. Without the Gaia to serve as a distraction Wing Zero had become much more aggressive in its attacks on the Nosferatu. The Colonel had tried to bring in Dagger Ls to flank his foe, but Heero had always seen them coming and had blown them out of the sky.

Sparing a glance towards the Gaia, Nazara saw that it was still locked in a duel with the white ZAKU Phantom. The two mobile suits still appeared to be evenly matched, which was very disappointing as far as the Colonel was concerned; the combination of Stella's abilities as an Extended and the stolen prototype's capabilities should've been enough for her to defeat lesser units in his mind. Nazara imagined it had something to do with the white mobile suit's pilot. If nothing else, the strange tingling feeling the Colonel had felt earlier at the back of his mind when the white ZAKU Phantom had come into combat range indicated that its pilot was an unusual specimen.

Unfortunately for Nazara, Stella's current stalemate was actually good news when compared to the rest of the battle. The Colonel's flanking flotilla, which had been meant to catch the _Minerva _in crossfire, was being torn apart by two of the new mobile suits from yesterday. The blue mobile suit with the heavy gatling guns and beam cannons had just obliterated the group's second _Typhoon_-class destroyer, while the unit with the two curved blades had just finished carving up one of the _Nelson_-class battleships. Several Dagger Ls had tried to protect the warships, but all they'd succeeded in doing was making themselves targets for the two attacking mobile suits, who had swiftly cut them down before returning to their assault on the flotilla. The remaining battleship and the _Agamemnon_-class carrier were pouring fire from every weapon they had at the two mobile suits in an effort to bring them down, but to the Colonel it appeared to be an exercise in futility.

The green and red ZAKU, along with the fourth prototype, were continuing to blast their way through the remaining Dagger L squadrons as they kept charging towards the _Girty Lue_'s flotilla. While the pilots of the red ZAKU and the prototype were evidently inexperienced, it was clear that the same could not be said for the green ZAKU's pilot. Its beam rifle fire was well-placed, it moved with precision and purpose, and its beam tomahawk carved up any Dagger L that tried to engage it up close. The covering fire from the Gunner ZAKU and the prototype's artillery left something to be desired in terms of placement, but it was still powerful and the pilot of the green Blaze ZAKU was taking full advantage of it.

Meanwhile, Jetstream Sam was still locked in a duel of his own with the new green mobile suit. Beam katana and trident repeatedly clashed, but neither unit appeared to be able to land a solid hit. It was a testament to the skills of both pilots and the power of their mobile suits, and Nazara was simply glad that the mercenary was keeping such a dangerous foe occupied.

As his beam saber clashed with that of Wing Zero's he received a hail from the _Girty Lue_'s Captain. "Sir, the _Obstinate _is quitting the field!"

"What?" he said with a snarl as he pulled back to avoid a follow-up strike from his foe.

"Rear Admiral Xen is withdrawing!" said Captain Lee.

"Damn it!" he growled as he disconnected with his ship and contacted the _Obstinate_, "Xen, you coward! Where the hell do you think you're going?"

"Away from here," she replied calmly.

"I haven't given the order to retreat," said Nazara as he traded fire with Wing Zero, "You'll be shot for desertion!"

"Hardly," Xen replied with a smirk, "I am following orders, just not _yours_, Colonel."

Under the mask Nazara glared at her while continuing to exchange shots with his foe. "Explain yourself at once!"

"My instructions from Lord Djibril," she said, "were to support you in the battle and gather data from the deployment of my Moebius A.I. drones. While I've been constantly transmitting the data from this fight back to both Daedalus and Arzachel bases in the event that ill-fortune befalls the _Obstinate_, my orders from Lord Djibril also include the authority to make my own retreat in the event that I judge the battle has turned decisively against us. I have made such a judgment here, and I am withdrawing to preserve myself, my staff, and my ship for future projects. If you don't believe me you are free to take the matter up with Lord Djibril… provided you survive your encounter with Heero Yuy, of course."

_Djibril, you set me up!_, he silently fumed, _I will make you pay for this betrayal!_

"I won't forget this, Xen," he snarled as he parried a beam saber strike from Wing Zero, "and I _will _make you regret it!"

"We shall see," Xen replied coolly, "If you wish to live long enough to do so then I'd strongly recommend a swift retreat at this point; your present situation is quite untenable. Farewell, Colonel."

As she disappeared from his screen he contacted the _Girty Lue_. "Captain, has engineering repaired the Mirage Colloid yet?"

On his screen the Captain nodded. "Yes sir. We can activate it at any time."

With great reluctance, the Colonel came to the conclusion that they would have to, and quite soon. A crimson blast from the _Minerva_'s bow-mounted positron cannon had taken out one of the _Nelson_-class battleships that had been escorting the _Girty Lue_. While the flagship and the remaining battleship continued to trade fire with the _Minerva_ Nazara recognized that they alone would be unlikely to destroy ZAFT's new warship. Her armor was tough, and while the Phantom Pain vessels were scoring hits and dealing damage the same was also true for the _Minerva_'s other weapons when it came to the Black Fleet's ships. The _Minerva_'s Captain was also skillfully making use of the scrap floating in the Debris Belt to give the ship some cover, while the commanding officers of the _Girty Lue _and the surviving battleship accompanying her were hardly showing such capability.

There was also the matter of his continuing clash with the upgraded Wing Zero. As Nazara dodged a blast from the mobile suit's legendary rifle he knew that, just like yesterday, this was a fight that he could not win.

_I don't understand it!_, he silently fumed as he returned fire, only for his foe to deflect the shots with his energy shields, _Why can't I defeat him? I'm the best pilot in the whole damn Earth Alliance and I'm wielding its best mobile suit! How is that not enough to kill him?_

He admitted that the upgraded Wing Zero was more advanced than the Nosferatu, but the technological difference was not enough in the Colonel's eyes to account for what would soon be back-to-back defeats to the same adversary. It wasn't as if Nazara was lacking in experience either; after all, he had survived not just yesterday's encounter but also his first clash with the Demon Lord of Avalon at the Second Battle of Jachin Due. The way he saw it he was more than amply motivated too; there was nothing quite like the prospect of revenge to give him that extra push in a fight.

And yet it still wasn't enough.

He swore that he would do whatever it took to find a way to defeat him. While he still wanted to prove that he was superior in a one-on-one clash, it was clear now that that could not happen with the Nosferatu as it currently was. Clearly upgrades were in order, and if even those were not enough then Nazara would settle for swamping his foe with overwhelming numbers. If he couldn't defeat Wing Zero in single combat he could at least have the satisfaction of delivering the killing blow after it had been suitably beaten down. He didn't care how many pilots he had to sacrifice in order to achieve that goal; they were all more than expendable in his book.

As he crossed blades with his foe yet again he decided it was time to pack it in. "Keep the Mirage Colloid on standby, Captain, and begin pulling back. Sacrifice the _Rumsfeld_ to cover your retreat. Have our surviving Dagger Ls attack whichever of the new mobile suits is closest; they just need to distract them long enough to cover my retreat. Jetstream Sam and Stella need to be covered as well. We will need them in future battles."

Captain Lee nodded. "What about the _Bismarck_'s flotilla?"

Nazara shook his head as he opened up with his two remaining gunbarrel drones at Wing zero, only for the mobile suit to evade his fire. "They're outmatched, and at this point escape is impossible for them. At least they can provide a brief distraction for the two mobile suits mauling them while we withdraw."

"Understood," said Captain Lee, "I'll reallocate our surviving Dagger L units accordingly to ensure enough cover for the _Girty Lue _and our most important mobile suits to withdraw."

"Good," said Nazara as he dodged a blast from Wing Zero's rifle, "Do be quick about it. Nosferatu, out."

….

Cutting loose with her Orthros heavy rifle, Lunamaria blew away another Dagger L. That mobile suit had barely been destroyed when another one rushed in to attack her up close. Thankfully Lunamaria was ready, and she was able to bring up her beam tomahawk to block the attack before chopping through the Dagger L's torso.

_Man_, she thought, _these guys don't quit!_

The enemy numbers had definitely been worn down, but the surviving Dagger Ls didn't seem ready to cut and run yet. If anything they were redoubling their efforts, but after a moment Lunamaria realized just what was really going on.

"Bogey One's pulling back!" she cried as she blasted another Dagger L with her rifle, "It's trying to run!"

"Not if I can help it!" shouted Shinn as he shot down a mobile suit with his twin railguns.

"I don't think so," said Athrun as he took down one machine with his beam rifle, "There's still too many left between us and Bogey One!"

Lunamaria didn't want to admit it, but it looked like Athrun was right. It wasn't just her group that was being held up either. The _Minerva _had moved forward in an attempt to engage Bogey One, but the surviving _Nelson_-class battleship that had been escorting it had moved between the two vessels and was now trading fire with the _Minerva_. While the older warship was no match for ZAFT's new battleship in a straight-up fight like this, she was buying valuable breathing room for Bogey One.

"Rey, watch out!" said Athrun as he dodged enemy particle beam fire, "You've got incoming!"

Looking for Rey's white ZAKU Phantom, Lunamaria saw that Athrun was right. Several Dagger Ls were rushing at him, and while their purpose may have been to provide cover for the stolen Gaia to withdraw they would still be in an ideal position to flank Rey and take him out.

"We got to help him!" cried Lunamaria.

"I'll handle that!" said Athrun, already rushing to back up Rey, "You and Shinn help out the others!"

_Help the others?_, thought Lunamaria as she looked around the battlefield, _Which ones?_

Heero appeared to be doing fine. He was still locked in his duel with the violet mobile suit from yesterday, and some Dagger Ls were quickly approaching that ongoing fight, but enemy units had tried to but in on the clash earlier in the battle and Lunamaria had seen Heero deal with them with ease. Quatre and Trowa likewise appeared to be in good shape, with Sandrock Saladin carving up the last _Nelson_-class battleship in the flanking flotilla while Heavyarms Arsenal was unleashing a hail of bullets and missiles on the Dagger Ls that were trying to take them down.

Then she saw Wufei. The aloof Chinese mobile suit pilot was continuing to engage the black and red machine that had defeated Shinn the day before. Like Heero's clash with the violet mobile suit it was unfolding at lightning speed, with both machines trading strikes with incredible precision and agility. Whether they were truly evenly matched or if Wufei was simply holding back Lunamaria couldn't say, but now it was quite clear to her that Shinn had never stood a chance against that enemy in the prior battle and that he'd been quite lucky to escape with his life.

Lunamaria didn't think that Wufei was in danger from his immediate adversary, but she could see Dagger Ls moving to get in on the action in his fight too. The pilot of the Gundam Altron Custom was highly skilled, but Lunamaria had to wonder if even he could fight a powerful opponent like the mobile suit with the beam katana while fending off flanking attacks from lesser machines.

"Shinn!" she said, "Do whatever you want; I'm going to help Wufei!"

She didn't wait for her friend's reply; she was already gunning her engines and rushing towards the duel. As she flew, Lunamaria brought up her heavy rifle and began searching for targets.

_All right, Wufei_, she thought, _Let's see you look down on my piloting skills after I save your life!_

….

Deflecting a slash from his foe's beam katana, Wufei swiftly responded in kind. Once again his adversary was able to block the attack, although Wufei noticed that it wasn't as smooth and precise as before.

_He's tiring_, thought Wufei with a smirk, _It won't be long now._

The fight had been good; Wufei wouldn't deny that. His foe wasn't of the same caliber as Treize and Zechs, but then again very few men were. It was enough that his adversary had been able to last this long against him. Wufei would salute the stranger's skill and daring, but that would not prevent him from cutting his enemy down.

As he deflected a vertical strike from the enemy's beam katana, Wufei whirled his double-ended beam trident around, bringing the other set of prongs down in a sweep designed to cut his foe in half. The enemy was able to parry the blow, but it was a close call, and their counterattack was easily blocked.

Wufei pressed his advantage, unleashing his left Dragon Fang. The mechanical serpent slammed into the black and red mobile suit's right shoulder, and while it couldn't break through the machine's Phase Shift Armor that wasn't the point. His foe was knocked off balance by the impact, and Wufei swiftly followed that up with another whirling slash from his beam trident. This time he scored a hit, though it was a glancing one. His foe was able to pull back at the last possible second, and the tip of the emerald beam trident left a scorched scar in the mobile suit's left shoulder, disrupting the Phase Shift Armor in that location but doing no real damage. Still, Wufei took small scar as a sign of progress, a signal that the tables had definitely turned in his favor.

As Wufei deflected the enemy's counterattack he heard a male voice coming over the radio. It was unfamiliar, but he didn't doubt for an instant that it was his current adversary.

"Not bad," said the man, sounding surprisingly relaxed, "Far better than that pup I fought against yesterday. You're certainly no amateur, whoever you are."

Wufei smirked as he made a stab with his beam trident, one that his foe barely managed to block. "The name's Chang Wufei. I suggest you remember it, because it's the name of the man who's going to kill you!"

He was amused to hear his adversary chuckle. "Perhaps so… or perhaps not. I'm not dead yet, Wufei!"

Wufei nodded, the gesture less an acknowledgement of the obvious statement and more of a salute to his enemy's strength. "No, you're not. What's your name, warrior?"

"Samuel Rodrigues," his enemy replied as their blades met again, "Don't forget it."

"I won't," said Wufei as he pressed his assault.

He had his foe on the defensive now, and Wufei was determined to bring this duel to a close. Wufei continued to drive Rodrigues back with whirling strikes from his double-ended beam trident, wearing his adversary down and looking for an opening that would allow him to make the killing blow.

_I'm close_, he thought as he made a series of quick slashes and stabs, _I've almost got him!_

Then an alarm went off in his cockpit, and as he glanced at his sensors he scowled. "Damn it, not now!"

Several Dagger Ls were rapidly approaching his duel. Frankly he was surprised it had taken them this long to try and butt in. Wufei could deal with them, but he would much rather continue his duel with Rodrigues uninterrupted.

Catching his foe's beam katana in between the prongs of his beam trident, Wufei readied his left Dragon Fang to fire at the closest Dagger L. However, before he could make his attack the unit was destroyed by a blast of crimson energy. It only took Wufei a moment to find the source of the shot; a familiar red ZAKU armed with a Gunner pack.

"Hey!" yelled Lunamaria, "I've got your back, Wufei!"

Wufei glared as he parried a counterattack from Rodrigues. "I don't need your help."

"Oh, come on!" cried Lunamaria, "I just saved your life!"

"I could've taken him," Wufei shot back as he unleashed his left Dragon Fang on another Dagger l and crushed it.

"That's bull," said Lunamaria as she opened fire again, taking out another Dagger L, "Would it kill you to admit that I just bailed you out?"

_What is it with this girl?_, he thought, _What's she trying to prove?_

Wufei was about to make another strike at Rodrigues when he saw the black and red mobile suit begin to retreat. "Hey, just where do you think you're going? We're not finished here yet!"

"Not my idea," Rodrigues replied, "but the boss ordered me to pull back. Until next time, Wufei!"

Wufei wanted to pursue, but a Dagger L was in his way and moving in for a beam saber strike. He deflected the blow and countered, cutting the mobile suit in half, but no sooner had he cut that one down when another had taken its place.

Rodgrigues wasn't the only enemy retreating. As he dodged beam fire from another Dagger L Wufei could see Athrun's green ZAKU fighting alongside Rey's white machine, fending off more Dagger Ls while the Gaia withdrew back towards Bogey One. Shinn was trying to pursue the Gaia, but additional enemy mobile suits were in his path as well. Wufei could also see more of the enemy mobile suits moving in on Heero's duel, doubtlessly to provide cover while the violet gunbarrel machine escaped.

_They're sacrificing the lesser units to allow the advanced machines and Bogey One to escape_, he thought, _What a bunch of cowards!_

He could still try to chase Rodrigues and Bogey One down. As he cut down another Dagger L Wufei realized that he still had a chance to carve himself a path through the lesser mobile suits and towards the real enemy. However, that would involve leaving Lunamaria to fend for herself. Part of him reasoned that there was nothing wrong with that; he hadn't asked for her to come back him up, and any risk to her she had brought upon herself. His sense of honor would not allow that, though. Like it or not, he knew that she had been acting under the belief that she was saving his life, regardless of Wufei's opinion that with his skills he could've easily contended with the incoming Dagger Ls while still dealing with Rodrigues. If he left her alone there was the very real chance that she could die, and there would be no justice in letting that happen.

So rather than try to catch up to Rodrigues and Bogey One he let fly with both his Dragon Fangs, crushing two machines that had been trying to flank the red ZAKU. Another mobile suit fell to a blast from Lunamaria's rifle, but the survivors still refused to retreat. Wufei could admire their commitment to their orders in the face of certain death, but that would not stop him from sending every last one of them to their graves.

….

As he parried another beam saber strike from the violet mobile suit, Heero was fully aware of the shift in the larger battle. Across the engagement zone the surviving Dagger Ls were throwing themselves against the Gundams with suicidal abandon to allow time for what the enemy must have considered essential units to retreat, and Heero knew that he would have to deal with some of that himself soon enough. His sensors showed at least a squadron of the machines swiftly incoming, and if he wanted to defeat his current adversary before they could interfere he would have to do it quickly.

_We can't let Bogey One escape a second time_, thought Heero as he pulled back to avoid getting caught in crossfire from his foe's two gunbarrel drones, _We have to capture that battleship!_

However, Heero realized that that might not be possible today. Bogey One was already pulling away from the fight, and if its Mirage Colloid system was operational again then it could disappear at any time. The Gundam pilot remembered that the battleship had not cloaked yesterday until the mobile suit he was fighting right now had boarded it, which meant that not only was it a valuable machine but that its pilot was very important as well. That gave Heero even greater incentive to finish his duel as quickly as he could.

He raised his rifle and fired, sending a blast of golden-yellow energy downrange. However, his enemy was able to dive and evade the shot before returning fire with their gunbarrel drones, rifle, and linear guns. Heero deflected the shots with his energy shields before pressing forward, determined to slice his foe in half.

As he neared his target he saw both of its remaining gunbarrel drones suddenly move forward. Remembering what had happened yesterday, Heero immediately brought his outer wings forward and activated his energy shields again. The move came not a moment too soon; the two gunbarrel drones detonated in a one-two punch as soon as they got in range. Just like yesterday, the exploding drones were not a direct threat to the Wing Zero Albion, but Heero knew that the intent behind the move was not to hurt him, only distract him.

The moment the blasts had faded Heero moved to pursue, but the squad of Dagger Ls that he had spotted earlier had finally moved in, and he was force to contend with them before giving chase. As he cut down one machine with his beam saber he could see the violet mobile suit rapidly approaching Bogey One; the unit was quite fast even without the thrusters from its gunbarrels supplementing its engines. Destroying another Dagger L with his machine cannons, Heero quickly scanned the battlefield to see if any of his friends were in a position to intercept either Bogey One or the violet mobile suit.

The closest Gundam was Deathscythe Omega, but Duo looked to be tied up with a team of Dagger Ls. Heavyarms Arsenal was in the process of annihilating the last warship, the carrier, from the flanking flotilla with a hail of bullets and beams while Sandrock Saladin contended with any remaining mobile suits in that part of the fight, but by the time they got within range of Bogey One Heero was sure that the battleship would've recovered the units it deemed vital and cloaked. Wufei was also contending with a team of Dagger Ls, although he did appear to have help from Lunamaria. Athrun was helping Rey fend off a group of machines that had interfered with his fight with the Gaia.

Shinn was actually the closest non-Gundam pilot, in fact the closest pilot period, to Bogey One, but if he ran into the violet mobile suit Heero doubted that he would survive; even without its gunbarrel drones the unit was potent, and the Perfect Soldier knew that its pilot was definitely beyond Shinn's skills. He was currently in pursuit of the Gaia, though it looked like that mobile suit would be able to dock with Bogey One before he'd be able to catch it. Still, if the hotheaded ZAFT pilot could hit Bogey One's engines then there was still a chance to prevent the enemy from escaping; the Blast Impulse definitely had the firepower needed to knock out Bogey One's engines.

Seeing an opportunity, Heero got on the radio as he shot down another Dagger L with his railguns. "Shinn, get to Bogey One and disable its engines!"

"Why should I take orders from you?" the ZAFT Red replied angrily, "You're not part of ZAFT! You're not my superior officer!"

"You're the closest to that ship and have the firepower required to disable it," Heero replied calmly, "You have the best shot at knocking out their engines before they can get away. If they're able to retreat we'll never find out who was behind the attack on Armory One and this whole battle will have been for nothing!"

"Fine," Shinn grumbled, "but I'm not doing it because you're telling me to!"

"As long as it gets done," said Heero as he ripped apart another Dagger L with his machine cannons, "Avoid engagement with the violet machine if you can; you're no match for its pilot."

"Shut up!" said Shinn before he cut the connection.

Heero shook his head in disgust as he evaded enemy fire. The boy had talent, but his pride and temper were serious liabilities. He had to wonder how his drill instructors at the ZAFT academy had never stamped them out of them. Either they had tried and failed miserably, or they had simply ignored them in favor of advancing the boy based on his piloting gifts alone. If Shinn Asuka represented the finest of the new breed of ZAFT pilots, then Heero was greatly disappointed; even the weakest of the late Patrick Zala's Special Operations Squadrons would've ripped him apart.

_Hot-headed and so wrapped up in his innate talent that he can't see just how obvious his flaws are_, Heero mused, _He's far too impulsive… I guess it's fitting that his mobile suit is _called _Impulse. It makes him predictable, and that will either get him killed or reduce him to being nothing more than the pawn of his superiors… or quite possibly both. I don't think Durandal would have any qualms about making the boy his personal attack dog and throwing him into the meat grinder._

At this point the boy's future as a mobile suit pilot did not look good, which was a shame as far as Heero was concerned. Shinn's talent was real, his potential quite genuine. The deaths of his parents and sister were clearly a powerful motivation for him, and Heero was sure that part of why Shinn was fighting to prevent others from suffering as he had. Heero could understand and even admire that sentiment, but Shinn had also allowed his sorrow from the tragedy of the Battle of Elysium to become infected by rage. Rage at his powerlessness to prevent his family's loss, rage at the government that was supposed to protect them from the ravages of war…

…rage at the world that had stolen his innocence.

The boy had potential, but whether it was the potential to be an ally or a threat would be determined by whether or not he could find peace with his past and master his anger. If he could accomplish that then he could become a true force for peace and justice in the world. If he could not, however, then he would become little more than ZAFT's rabid hound, attacking whoever his masters told him to without a second thought…

…and Heero would have to put him down.

….

Rushing towards the _Girty Lue_, Colonel Nazara was pleased to see that his decision to sacrifice the surviving Dagger Ls was paying off. So far the mass production mobile suits were managing to keep the upgraded Wing Zero and the other four powerful units at bay. The same also went for the ZAKU Phantom and the two ZAKU Warriors that had also taken off from the _Minerva_, while the new warship herself was still locked in an artillery duel with the final _Nelson_-class battleship of Force Beta. Jetstream Sam's Ronin was already lining up for its docking approach with the _Girty Lue_, and it would be just a matter of seconds until both Nazara and Stella would be able to do the same.

The only matter of contention was the fourth prototype from Armory One. It had managed to punch through the Dagger L screen and was moving in fast. Worse, the unit was clearly wielding an augmentation pack designed for anti-ship and anti-fortification combat, and there was a very real risk of it getting in range to strike the _Girty Lue _before the battleship could activate its Mirage Colloid.

_We'll be cutting this close_, he thought, _I'd better have Captain Lee prep our final bit of cover._

He contacted his flagship, and its Captain appeared on his monitor. "We're ready to receive you, Colonel, and the Mirage Colloid system is ready to activate on your command."

Nazara nodded. "Good. Captain, prepare the Starburst Contingency; there's a chance we may have to use it."

Captain Lee nodded. "Yes, I can see that prototype coming in now. Starburst Contingency will be ready before you land."

Nazara smiled. "Excellent. Nazara, out."

The Colonel was tempted to come about and engage the incoming prototype himself, but prudence won out. Destroying the machine would be a blow to ZAFT, but right now withdrawal and survival had top priority.

He spared one last look at Heero Yuy as the Demon Lord of Avalon continued to shred any Dagger Ls that came near him. The next time the two of them met in battle, Nazara vowed that things would be different.

_Three times now you've made me taste bitter defeat_, he silently fumed, _The fourth will not go so smoothly for you, Heero Yuy, I promise you that!_

….

Gunning his engines, Shinn flew towards Bogey One as fast as the Blast Impulse could take him. Not for the first time in this battle did he wish that Captain Gladys had ordered him to sortie with the Force Silhouette instead; its increased speed would really come in handy right about now.

Still, Shinn couldn't deny how satisfying it would fell to pound Bogey One with the Blast Impulse's considerable artillery. He was quickly approaching optimal firing range, and was already moving to target the battleship's engines with his heavy beam cannons and railguns. As soon as he had a lock he would cut loose. Once the engines were knocked out, Shinn planned to move on to the warship's heavy weapons. The Gaia and the black and red mobile suit from yesterday were already inside the ship, and the violet gunbarrel unit was just now entering the vessel; there was nothing standing between him and his target.

_I won't let you escape_, he thought, _You're going to pay for attacking Armory One! You're going to answer to __**me**__!_

He was just seconds away from getting a target lock he saw several hatches open up along the vessel's hull. Shinn had only a moment to brace himself before a swarm of missiles flew from the ship, some heading right for him but others seemingly going in random directions. He readied his weapons to shoot down the missiles that threatened him directly when they suddenly exploded on their own. The detonations weren't typical explosions, though; they were brilliant, blinding flares of light. They completely overwhelmed his visual sensors, and his targeting systems went haywire as well; some sort of chaff was apparently in the warheads as well.

"No!" he shouted as he shielded his eyes, "They can't get away!"

He fired wildly, praying that one of his shots might hit the warship and disrupt the Mirage Colloid it was undoubtedly deploying. When his visibility cleared up Shinn was very disappointed; there was no sign of Bogey One.

"Shit!" he snarled, slamming his fist against the arm of his chair, "Those fucking bastards!"

As he seethed with rage, he vowed that this would not be the end of it. One way or another, he would find the people on that ship and make them pay dearly for the crimes they had committed.

….

There was a cheer from the bridge crew as the last _Nelson_-class battleship succumbed to a hail of particle beams and cannon rounds from the _Minerva_. Talia was not among those celebrating; Bogey One was the ultimate objective of this operation, and she would not rest on her laurels until it was captured.

"Head for Bogey One!" she ordered, "Target her forward guns and fire at will!"

"Captain!" cried the sensor officer, "Bogey One is no longer on our scopes! She's completely disappeared!"

Talia's eyes widened. "What?"

"Ma'am!" yelled Meyrin, "Shinn's on the line!"

"Patch him through," she ordered with a sinking feeling in her stomach.

The pilot of the Impulse appeared on the main monitor, his disappointment and frustration clear even through his helmet visor. "Captain… Bogey One got away. It fired a bunch of flare rockets when I moved in to attack and then it cloaked."

Talia nodded. "Understood. Assist the others with mopping up, Shinn."

"Copy that," Shinn replied.

As the main monitor shifted back to the battle, Talia saw that there wasn't much for her side left to mop up. Albion and the other four Gundams had wiped the floor with most of the enemy mobile suits, and there were only a handful of them still on the field. Between the combined efforts of her own pilots and Heero's team the remaining enemy units would be eliminated in short order. Talia hoped that one or two might surrender so that she could capture them for interrogation, but from what she could see they all seemed quite intent on fighting to the death.

_No captured battleship and no surrendering mobile suit pilots_, she thought grimly, _The only thing we're learning about our enemy through these battles is that they have no qualms about throwing away soldiers and materiel…_

"Are there any enemy ships left in the area?" she asked.

"The only ship on scopes is the modified _Salvager_-class ship," the sensor officer replied, "They began their withdrawal a while ago."

"Get them on screen," Talia ordered, "and plot a trajectory."

The repurposed Reclamation Ship was already a good distance from the battlefield. Her pace was significantly faster than what was standard for a ship of that class, and Talia guessed that the vessel's engines had been upgraded to make its performance more suitable to whatever its new role was. It had already gained some distance, but the gap was not insurmountable.

"Captain," said the sensor officer, "the enemy's trajectory takes them towards Alliance territory! Looks like they're making for the Lunar Perimeter!"

"I knew it," said Arthur, "The Earth forces are behind all of this!"

"So the evidence would suggest," said Durandal, "but it is still circumstantial. It is still too early to tell what their final destination is."

"Captain, what are your orders?" asked Arthur.

Chasing the _Salvager_-class ship was the obvious call, but if they were making for the Lunar Perimeter then that would unleash a whole new can of worms. To say that the Earth Alliance would be _concerned _about ZAFT's newest battleship approaching the Moon would be a significant understatement. To make matters worse, word would have already spread about the appearance of the Albion, and if the attackers were linked to the Earth Alliance then they would know that Heero Yuy was now traveling on board the _Minerva_, along with four more mobile suits that appeared to be at least derived from the legendary Wing Zero. For all she knew the Earth forces could have already dispatched patrols to shadow the _Minerva _the moment the ship left L4, or to intercept it if it came within a predetermined distance of the Lunar Perimeter.

"Sensors," she said carefully, "before it fired the flare rockets, what was Bogey One's last known trajectory?"

"Analyzing," her subordinate replied, "It looks like the trajectory could take it to the edge of L1… or towards L5."

"There's no way they're going towards L5," said Arthur, "Even with a Mirage Colloid system there's no way they would risk an attack on the homeland!"

"L5 should still be warned," said Durandal, "We need to place the Home Fleet on secondary alert."

Talia nodded. "Chairman, if you like I can set you up a secure channel so you can make the necessary call."

"Thank you, Talia," he replied, "Before that, though… what shall we do here? Do we attempt to track down Bogey One again, or do we follow the ship we _can _see?"

"You know the clear call there, Chairman," she said, "At least with the _Salvager_-class ship we can maintain sensor and visual contact."

"Yes," said Durandal, his eyes narrowing, "but if their destination really is the Lunar Perimeter… our pursuit may be justified, but I fear that it could also inflame tensions."

"They're already inflamed, Chairman," said Talia, "That craft may not have participated in the attack on Armory One, but it was clearly working with Bogey One! At this point it's our best shot and finding some answers!"

"And when the Earth Alliance inevitably sends out a patrol to intercept us?" asked Durandal pointedly, "Would you risk the life of your nation's chief executive in such an encounter, and that of Orb's leader as well?"

_Damn it, Gilbert, state it plainly!_, she thought, _If you don't want me to pursue then give the order! Don't play political niceties on my bridge!_

Talia sighed. "Perhaps in this case it would be best to rendezvous with the nearest friendly patrols. There should be other ships that can track the _Salvager_-class vessel while we come up with an appropriate strategy."

Durandal nodded and smiled. "Yes, I believe that is best. Send the ship's trajectory data to the closest recon patrols and have the ones with the swiftest ships follow at a safe distance. They are to break off if the ship appears to be rendezvousing with Alliance fleet units."

Talia turned to Meyrin. "Get the word out to our patrols. After that, recover our mobile suits once mop up operations are complete. This battle is over for now."

Meyrin nodded. "Aye, Captain!"

She heard Lady Cagalli sigh with relief. "Thank goodness."

It was a sentiment Talia partially shared. As much as she wanted to capture Bogey One and bring those aboard it to justice for their attack on Armory One, she was also quite grateful that the engagement was winding down with no casualties on her side. Her crew and her pilots had acquitted themselves well today, even if they were overshadowed by Heero Yuy and his four companions.

_We're all still alive_, she thought as she watched the remaining Dagger Ls fall one by one, _We may have failed to achieve our objectives, but we live to fight another day. I'll gladly take that…_

….

Over three years had passed since the Bloody Valentine Tragedy, and the remains of the colony at the heart of that dreadful event drifted through space as a titanic monument to the sins of those that had attacked her. Junius Seven had been split in half by the nuclear strike, but even reduced so she remained vast and imposing. The memorial markers that had been placed on the one year anniversary of the attack and at the end of the war named for the nuclear attack on Junius Seven struck Commander Michael Cortez as superfluous and unnecessary, even insulting; how could any tribute do justice to the massacre that had taken place here?

This was not just a place of mourning and remembrance for Coordinators in general. Michael's younger brother had died in the Bloody Valentine Tragedy. Surveying the ruins of the bottom half of the colony, the blond-haired, brown-eyed man wondered if his sibling's body was down there in one of the buildings, or if it had been lost to the vastness of space. The twenty-nine year-old Coordinator shook his head; even if Richard's body was down there, it would be all but impossible to find. Besides, at this point it did not matter. Michael was not here on a memorial mission.

His task was one of _vengeance_.

Michael had already been a member of ZAFT before the opening shots of the Bloody Valentine War, but the attack on Junius Seven had steeled his resolve in a way that nothing else could ever hope to do. What had started as the desire to protect his people turned over months of bitter and brutal conflict to the thirst for bloody retribution. It had been little surprise when he had drifted into the circles of Patrick Zala and the radical faction. After all, the late head of both the Defense Council and eventually the PLANT Supreme Council understood Michael's loss and rage in a way few others could, having lost his wife in the same attack.

From his seat on the bridge of the _Laurasia_-class frigate _Curie_ he waited patiently for the means to his end to be implemented. The vessel was not alone; she was part of a group of forty ships of the same class, over which the Commander had authority. Well, _former _Commander was a more accurate term; no one present here today was still a member of ZAFT. The frigates and mobile suits they possessed were all stolen property, military hardware that had been decommissioned and destined for the scrappers. It had taken careful planning to acquire them and assemble them all here, along with finding supplies for them, like-minded individuals to crew them, and to conceal them in the orbital Debris Belt. The undertaking had been painfully slow at times, a task in progress since mere months after the official end of the Bloody Valentine War, but after nearly two years of labor the dreams of all in this force would finally be realized.

He turned to his communications officer. "What's the latest from the engineering teams?"

"Sir," the man replied, "at last report thirty percent of the Flare Motors have been assembled and moved into position."

Michael nodded. "How long until the others are mounted and ready for activation?"

"Between twenty four to thirty-six hours, sir," said the officer, "From activation it will still take time for them to build up power and speed. Chief Engineer Lambert estimates that it could be anywhere between three to five days before we're able to achieve impact."

"No matter," said Michael, "We've waited years for this. What's a few more days? Carry on."

The officer nodded. "Aye, Commander."

Returning his attention to the remains of the colony, a dark smile crept over Michael's face. The treaty that had been signed over these ruins was a farce. Muruta Azrael and the High Command may have died in the Second Battle of Jachin Due, but that was far too light a price to be paid for the innocent blood that had been spilt here. GENESIS may have been destroyed, but Michael swore that he would bring the will of Patrick Zala to fruition regardless of the costs. The Naturals of Earth would look into the sky and tremble at the coming onslaught, knowing once and for all that their time had come. They would know the legacy of Patrick Zala…

…and then they would know fire and death.

**Preview for next time!**

_With the escape of the Girty Lue, Heero and the others have lost their best chance to find proof of the Earth Alliance's involvement in the attack on Armory One. However, priorities suddenly shift when it is discovered that the orbit of the remains of Junius Seven is decaying and that it will soon impact the Earth. Terminal and ZAFT scramble to stop the descent, but they soon discover that the colony's fall is being facilitated by members of the old PLANT regime. As a battle for the fate of the world unfolds, the son of Patrick Zala is forced to confront his dark legacy. Next time, on "Destiny's Call", Episode Five: Sins of the Father._

"_The Sins never die.  
Can't wash this blood off our hands.  
Let the world fear us all.  
It's just means to an end."_

_Donna Burke, "Sins of the Father"_

**Author's Notes: ** All right, the fourth chapter is done! Sorry for the wait on this, but you should all know by now that I don't do rush jobs. The work wouldn't be nearly as good if I did. Thanks for sticking with me on this so far. We've got a long journey ahead of us yet. Also, more canon-violating is ahead, so stay tuned for fun times!

Until next time! Please review!


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Notes: **Kept you waiting, huh? Sorry this one took so long, it's a pretty damn big chapter, plus I've had a lot on my plate. Canon takes a few more good kicks to the gonads, and this is far from the last chapter that will happen in. Also there's a few new mobile suits in this chapter that I know some of you have been dying to see in action.

Song list for the chapter, in order of appearance: "Ambiguous" by GARNiDELiA (the second opening theme for _Kill la Kill_, love that show!), "Realize" from _Gundam SEED_, fourth opening theme, and "Gensou no Kekkai / Necrofantasia", an arrange of Yukari Yakumo's theme "Necrofantasia" from _Touhou: Perfect Cherry Blossom_ (original piece by ZUN, the arrange done by xi-on).

**Episode Five: Sins of the Father**

Heero sighed as he concluded his report to Murrue. "So that's it. We lost Bogey One and have no idea where she might be. Unless her Mirage Colloid system fails again I can't see us picking up her scent any time soon. As for the _Salvager_-class vessel, if they really are heading for the Lunar Perimeter then I can understand Captain Gladys' decision not to pursue; I'm sure the Earth Alliance has already broadened their patrols since the attack on Armory One, and we'd probably be intercepted by their official forces long before we caught up to the modified Reclamation Ship. Things would probably get real ugly then, especially once they asked about Wing Zero Albion and the other four Gundams."

The battle had ended just a little while ago. All five Gundams, along with the ZAFT units, were back inside the _Minerva_, and from what Heero understood the battleship was moving to rendezvous with nearby elements of the ZAFT fleet. The battle had been quite quick all things considered, thanks in no small part to Duo acting as a stealth spotter for Heero's opening shot, and as soon as the Perfect Soldier had touched down in the _Minerva_'s hangar he'd wasted no time in getting a secure communications channel set up so he could give Murrue a proper status update. Rather than the Morgenroete attire she had worn last time, now Murrue was clad in the light grey and dark blue uniform of an Orb military officer.

Murrue nodded. "I agree. I bet the Earth Alliance is already putting political pressure on ZAFT. After all, you've fought alongside the _Minerva_'s mobile suits in two battles now. The Earth Alliance will probably accuse ZAFT of violating the treaty by constructing new nuclear powered machines, including one that's designed around Wing Zero."

"Yeah," said Heero, "Of course, they have no idea that it actually _is _Wing Zero."

"Let's keep it that way," Murrue replied, "Things are bad enough as it is."

Heero closed his eyes for a moment, and his gaze became a little darker when he opened them. "I have a feeling that they're going to get worse regardless. I failed, Murrue. This was our chance to capture Bogey One and get to the heart of all this and I let it slip through my fingers."

Shinn may have been the one that Heero had sent to disable Bogey One's engines and had been unable to do so, but Heero did not hold the ZAFT Red responsible for the battleship's escape. Wing Zero Albion's pilot held himself to be accountable for the mission's failure. He should've been able to defeat the violet gunbarrel machine faster, been able to punch through the enemy's Dagger L rearguard, been able to knock out the warship's engines and weapons before it could cloak, been able to board the vessel and take it intact…

"Don't do this, Heero," said Murrue firmly, breaking him out of his thoughts, "You and I both know that you did everything that you could. I won't let you blame yourself for what happened today. Even if Bogey One escaped you still defeated an entire battle group that was working with it and sent their best pilots packing for the second time in as many days. You also defended both Cagalli and the PLANT Supreme Council Chairman, both today and yesterday. Do not assume that this was a defeat just because the core battleship and the A.I. carrier got away. As long as you and I draw breath, this is far from over."

Heero couldn't help but smile slightly. Murrue knew him so well; she'd instantly realized the road his thoughts had gone down and had swiftly moved to counter. It must've been instinctive for her by now.

It was just one of the many reasons why he loved her.

After a moment he nodded. "You're right, although what we do for our next move is something of an open question right now. How long until you're ready to launch the _Archangel_?"

"Erica's teams finished mounting the positron boosters just before dawn," she said, "The crew all boarded last night, and we're all topped off on supplies. We just have to wait until night comes again so we'll have cover to move out, and that's just a few hours away Orb local time. We'll be in orbit soon enough, Heero."

"Good," said Heero, "What's Natarle's position?"

"In the Debris Belt," Murrue replied, "at about the mid-point between L3 and L4. It sounds like things are drifting more towards L1 or L5 now, so she'll be adjusting her heading. Once my ship makes orbit I'll set our course based on your latest status report."

"All right," said Heero, "I'm honestly not sure how much longer the others and I can remain aboard the _Minerva_. We've still got good will with the crew, and today's battle didn't hurt there, but if Captain Gladys is going to be operating with other elements of the ZAFT fleet now then that could complicate things."

"There will be room aboard both the _Archangel _and the _Dominion _for your Gundams if you need to make a run for it," said Murrue with a smile, "Both ships are carrying mobile suits, of course, but we made sure to spare some space for you."

"Appreciated," said Heero, "We'll probably need it sooner or later."

"Speaking of the _Archangel_," said Murrue, "I've got some good news on that front."

"What is it?" asked Heero.

"I talked to Lacus and Kira," she said, "Both of them are coming with us when we launch."

Heero nodded and gave her a small smile. "That's good to hear. Kira's skills will definitely come in handy, and I know having Lacus on the _Archangel _will be a morale boost for all our forces."

"My thoughts exactly," said Murrue, "They both send their regards. Oh, the Waltfelds, Dearka, and Yzak will also be flying from the _Archangel _should we end up in a fight."

"Even better," said Heero, his smile slightly growing, "No problems with their mobile suits?"

"Chief Murdoch reports that they're all set for action," said Murrue with a confident smile, "Any enemies we encounter won't know what hit them, especially with Dearka and Yzak's mobile suits. I'm glad you were able to help Erica produce those; they look very formidable."

"They should be," said Heero with a smirk, "and they won't be the only surprise in store for our foes. How are the _Archangel_'s upgrades looking?"

"Everything's in the green so far," Murrue replied, "Although… I hope we don't have to use the big one. That's going to set the whole world on edge if it's revealed."

Heero nodded. "I know, but depending on the situation we may not have a choice in the matter. We'll deal with that when the time comes. Besides, the world will be on edge as it is with the attack on Armory One. Even if the other powers learn about the _Archangel_'s new weapon I doubt that'll inflame tensions as much as the strike at the L4 colony already has."

"I hope you're right," said Murrue, "In the meantime, please be careful, Heero. I know you've gotten yourself in the good graces of the _Minerva_'s crew, but be cautious in dealing with them."

Heero gave her a small smile. "I know, Murrue. I'll watch my back, so don't worry about me."

Murrue returned his smile. "I'll try. Take care, Heero."

"You too, Murrue," said Heero.

….

"Man," said Lunamaria as she left the pilots' locker room, "talk about a letdown. We do all that work and Bogey One still gets away! I can't believe we're not chasing after that other ship, too! What's the Captain thinking?"

"No kidding!" said Shinn as he and Rey came out behind her, "We could've at least caught up to that thing and tried to capture it!"

"That modified _Salvager_-class ship was on a vector that takes it towards the Lunar Perimeter," said Rey calmly, "If we pursued them we'd run into Earth Alliance patrols. The Captain's probably trying to avoid a diplomatic incident."

"_Incident_?" said Shinn incredulously, "They attacked our colony and fought us again just a few minutes ago! We're way past 'incident' here!"

Lunamaria sighed and shook her head. Shinn was a good pilot and a generally nice guy most of the time, but sometimes it amazed her just how many key details he could miss. He wasn't exactly a 'big picture' kind of guy.

"Shinn, we still don't have proof that it was them," she said, "Yes, most of the units used in the past two fights are ones also utilized by the Earth Alliance, but they weren't broadcasting Alliance IFFs or flying with their markings. That's why capturing Bogey One was so important; we needed to do that in order to get proof of their involvement!"

"Yeah," Shinn grumbled, "and I screwed that up, I know. Don't remind me, Luna."

"No one is saying that you screwed up, Shinn," said Rey, "The enemy utilized countermeasures to distract you while it cloaked. Since we still don't know the full array of Bogey One's capabilities we could not have seen that coming."

Lunamaria nodded. "Rey's right, Shinn. It's not your fault; we get that. So lighten up and focus on getting those bastards next time."

"If there is a next time," said Shinn gloomily, "We have no idea where Bogey One is now and have no way to track it."

"It'll pop up again sooner or later," Lunamaria replied, sounding more confident than she actually felt, "and when it does we'll make the people on board it wish they'd never picked a fight with us!"

"I'm sure we will," said Rey.

Shinn nodded and smiled. "Yeah, you're right, Luna."

She smiled. "Damn right, I am. Come on, let's grab something to eat. I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving!"

"Sounds good to me," said Shinn.

"Shinn, we can't, remember?" Rey cut in, "We're supposed to go to the med bay for our evaluation."

Shinn sighed. "Right, I forgot. You'd better go on without us, Luna. Don't bother waiting; knowing the doctor we'll probably be a while."

"That bites," said Lunamaria, "All right, I'll catch you guys later."

As the two boys headed towards the med bay Lunamaria made her way towards the cafeteria. She hoped Meyrin or someone else she knew would be there too; it was no fun eating alone.

_I wonder if Heero or any of the other Gundam pilots will be there_, she thought, _I wouldn't mind getting to spend some time with them… even Wufei. He's got to think a little better of me now; I did way better in today's battle than I did yesterday._

Truth be told though, her feelings about her performance in the battle in the Debris Belt were a little more mixed than she would've like to admit. Yes, she had improved significantly, and with the Gunner pack she'd been able to take down more mobile suits than she had without it back at Armory One. However, she realized that it meant she was also becoming a more efficient killer, which was definitely unsettling. Yes, she was a soldier, and Lunamaria had accepted that that meant she would be called upon to take life in the course of her duties. She had accepted that… or at least, she told herself that she had.

_Get it together Lunamaria_, she thought, shaking her head, _You're a pilot for ZAFT now. The people you killed today knew what they signed up for; they were mobile suit pilots too, after all. The group they fly for picked a fight with us at Armory One and tried to destroy the colony; they're fair game by the laws and conventions of war. You did the right thing, both yesterday and today._

Trying to push those thoughts aside, she entered the cafeteria. She looked around for Meyrin but didn't see her. Another familiar face did pop up, though; Chang Wufei. He was sitting alone, and while he had food in front of him he didn't seem to have really dug in yet. The young man looked like he had his mind on something other than dinner, although what that was Lunamaria didn't have clue.

_Well_, she thought as she went to grab her food, _this should be interesting._

Dishing up, she then went over to Wufei's table, smiling as she approached. "Mind if I join you?"

The young man looked up at her and nodded. "Sure."

It wasn't exactly an enthusiastic greeting, but it wasn't hostile or dismissive either, and Lunamaria decided that she would take what she could get from the strange pilot. Sitting down across from him, she quickly began digging into her food. As she ate she waited for him to say something, but he was silent, occasionally taking a bit from his meal but doing little else. Lunamaria hated silence during a meal; it felt way too awkward for her.

"So," she said after a minute or two, "I saw you fighting that black and red mobile suit earlier. You know, that guy came pretty close to killing Shinn yesterday."

Wufei nodded. "I'm surprised he didn't succeed. He should've had no problem making the killing strike against him."

Lunamaria glared at him. First Shinn got in a fight with Heero because the Gundam pilot had criticized him, and now another of the strange pilots that had come aboard the _Minerva _was ripping on him. Sure, Shinn had his issues, but Lunamaria felt like this was a little too much.

"Hey!" she said, "What the hell's that about?"

"It's just an observation," Wufei replied calmly, "Rodrigues is a veteran pilot. Shinn is not. With that man's skills, Shinn was very lucky to escape with his life."

"Wait a minute," said Lunamaria, puzzled, "How do you know the name of that pilot?"

"Because he told me it," said Wufei casually.

Lunamaria's eyes widened. "You mean you actually _talked_ to him while he was trying to kill you?"

Wufei smirked. "It's not that unusual, you know. Stranger things have happened on battlefields. If you survive long enough you just might see a few for yourself."

Lunamaria folded her arms. "_If _I survive? I think I proved to you today that I can hold my own."

"Perhaps," Wufei replied as he took another bite of his meal, "You did better today than yesterday, but if I'd pursued Rodrigues after he began to withdraw I wonder if you'd have been able to fend off the rest of those Dagger Ls by yourself."

Lunamaria's eyes narrowed. "You still don't think I can handle myself?"

"You have skill," Wufei replied, "but I think you're overestimating yourself."

"Well, I could say the same of you," Lunamaria shot back, "Sure, you're better than me, I've got no problem admitting that, but you're not perfect. You're not the best, and you shouldn't act like it!"

Wufei shook his head. "I never said I was the best. Someone else already holds that title, whether he'll admit it or not."

Lunamaria was taken aback; that wasn't the sort of response she'd been expecting. With the level of confidence Wufei seemed to have in his abilities, to hear him freely admit that he was not the top pilot was quite jarring.

"Well then," she said carefully, "If you say that _you're _not the best… then who is?"

Wufei chuckled. "I just gave you a pretty damn big hint; he won't admit it to anyone. It's in his nature, which is part of what makes him the best; he doesn't let it go to his head. He is fully aware of his power and knows just how to use it, but he also recognizes his limits. Tell me, Lunamaria; among us, who fits that description?"

"How should I know?" she asked, "I've only known you guys for about two days."

"You should still be able to make a guess," said Wufei coolly, "Especially since he's already got quite the reputation around here."

After a moment Lunamaria put two and two together. "You mean Heero Yuy, don't you?"

Wufei nodded. "He's earned that title, even if he doesn't want to wear it. The others and I come close, but the top of the mountain belongs to him."

"What kind of training did you guys have?" she asked, "I mean, what you five can do… it's not just because of your mobile suits, I know that much."

Wufei closed his eyes for a moment. "We were each trained in a different manner. However, for us the real teacher has been experience, and in that no one in this world can match us."

"You mean the Bloody Valentine War?" asked Lunamaria.

Wufei shook his head. "Our abilities were forged and tested in fire well before that conflict."

He was being unusually forthcoming now, and Lunamaria did not know how long it would last. She was determined to make the most of it.

"Then where?" Lunamaria pressed, "When? What did you guys go through that sets you apart from us? What battlefields have you seen?"

Wufei was silent for a moment. When he spoke again his voice was solemn, and Lunamaria knew that she was treading on sacred ground for him.

"We survived campaigns that pitted us against the might of the entire world," he said, "We fought adversaries who gave no second thought to sacrificing both soldiers and civilians. Villages, cities, nations, and entire colonies were laid to waste… including my own."

Lunamaria's eyes widened in shock. "Wait... your _colony_? Are you from Junius Seven? Or one of the L4 colonies?"

Wufei shook his head. "They're not colonies that you would recognize."

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

If he heard that question he did not answer it; his mind clearly someplace else now. "Stand in the ashes of what was once your clan, knowing that you are the last of your kind, and that they sacrificed themselves in defiance of the power that ruled the Earth Sphere. Stand against a power that is willing to detonate nuclear warheads on its own bases just for a chance to kill you. Stand against men who would try to poison an entire colony just to kill a handful of rebels and to make it easier to _scrap_. Stand against the armies of the world, knowing that there is no backup for you, no cavalry that will come riding over the next hill when you are about to fall."

His eyes met hers, dark and heavy with the weight of a past that Lunamaria was now desperate to learn about. "When you've fought enemies like that, in battles where the term 'impossible odds' is not hyperbole, _then _you will understand how we became what we are."

Lunamaria sat in stunned silence for a moment. If what he had described had not taken place in the Bloody Valentine War, then what war was he talking about? There was no way that he was lying; the look in his eyes was all the proof Lunamaria needed of that. Still, what he was describing was not a small conflict in some developing region that had taken place before the last war. This was carnage and destruction on a massive scale, but for the life of her she could not match it with a recent conflict other than the Bloody Valentine War.

"Who are you?" she said softly, "_What _are you?"

"I am a Gundam pilot," he said calmly, "No more and no less."

"That doesn't tell me anything!" she replied, frantically trying to find a way to get him to tell her more.

"It should tell you _everything_," said Wufei, "There are only five of us in the entire Earth Sphere, and for good reason. Our power does not come from a vacuum. To ascend to the peak of combat ability, you first have to plunge into the depths of humanity's cruelty and barbarism. It's a baptism of fire and blood that goes far beyond simply taking life on the battlefield. You have military training, and that is important, but conventional instruction cannot prepare you for the true horrors of war."

"What are you saying?" she asked, "That our training was a waste of time?"

Wufei shook his head. "No, but if you think that you learned everything you needed to know during your time at the academy then you are sadly mistaken. You noticed that in your first battle, didn't you? Tell me, was fighting real opponents, people actually trying to kill you, anything like practice and simulations?"

Lunamaria looked down at the table. "No… it wasn't."

"Of course not," said Wufei, his eyes narrowing, "These past two days have given you a taste of real combat, but even now you've yet to truly take the plunge. You're in the shallows, Lunamaria; you've entered the ocean, but you haven't dived into the abyss."

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Mobile suit combat, for all its lethality, is relatively sanitized," said Wufei, "You don't see the person that you're killing, only their machine. The life and death struggle of mechanized warfare is very real, but it is also impersonal. Your hands guide the mobile suit, your fingers pull the triggers, and you see the enemy machine explode on the screen, but you do not _feel _the death of the other pilot. Your mind may acknowledge it, and your heart may be unsettled by it, but their deaths are distant, shielded from you by electronics and metal."

He leaned forward, his elbows on the table and his hands clasped just below his chin. "Gundam pilots fight using more than just their mobile suits. We've all engaged in battle on foot at some point in our careers. Often it's with firearms, but sometimes the fighting is truly up-close and personal. That's when the blades come out. Either way, whether we blow a man's head off in a firefight or slit his throat in an infiltration, we can see death in its rawest form. The spray of blood, the smell of gun smoke, or the last, ragged gasps of the mortally wounded… we've seen all that and much more besides."

With that he stood up and picked up his tray, giving her a look that was a strange mix of pity and a warning. "Pray that you never ascend to our level of skill, Lunamaria. To do that would require you to descend into a manmade hell, one that no amount of training could ever prepare you for."

Lunamaria shook her head, determined to meet his gaze. "Whatever you endured, I can do the same. I'm not afraid."

He turned around and went to put his tray away, but before he did so he spared her one last look over his shoulder, one that chilled her to the bone.

"You should be."

….

As the cafeteria door closed behind him, Wufei moved over to the nearby wall and leaned back, shaking his head.

_What the hell got into me back there?_

Even if it hadn't necessarily been a straight answer, it still wasn't like him to give out as much information as he had, especially to a girl that he'd met roughly 48 hours ago. Another pilot might chalk it up to little more than adrenaline letdown and venting a bit after a heated battle, but it wasn't Wufei's style.

Ever since he'd come aboard the _Minerva _it seemed like his path kept crossing with that of its feisty red-headed mobile suit pilot. At another time he could simply chalk that up to coincidence, but there was something about Lunamaria that made him rule that out. She may not have been nearly as strong as a Gundam pilot and was definitely a newcomer to the battlefield, but she was spirited… and had somehow found a way to get under Wufei's skin.

_Just like __**her**__…_

Wufei shook his head again. _She _was dead. _She _had fallen four years ago, and all that remained of her were echoes and memories in his mind. Even her grave was no more; it had been lost when the colony he had once shared with her had been destroyed.

"Did you run into your new friend in there?" said a familiar voice.

Wufei looked up to see Trowa Barton coming down the corridor. The Gundam pilot from the L4 colony cluster had always been something of an enigma to Wufei. As a long range and barrage specialist Trowa's preferred method of fighting was the complete opposite of Wufei's, and the pilot of Heavyarms Arsenal could be as cool and inscrutable as Heero. Yet despite his withdrawn nature he had struck up what appeared to Wufei to be an odd sort of friendship with the circus knife thrower Catherine Bloom. He was a hard young man to figure out to everyone except apparently Heero and Quatre, and that wasn't helped by the slanted bangs that covered one of his eyes, making him even more difficult to read.

"What are you talking about?" asked Wufei.

"The pilot of the red ZAKU," Trowa replied, "You save her life in yesterday's fight and you stuck around today to keep her from dying rather than chase after the enemy you'd been dueling."

Wufei shrugged. "So I've helped her stay alive. We're allies, so it's natural that I'd help her out. That doesn't make her my friend."

"You're not a natural team player, Wufei," said Trowa, the eye Wufei could see narrowing, "We're all independently minded, but even by our standards you're not exactly one for cooperation."

"I fought alongside you and the others in our war," said Wufei.

"I didn't say that you couldn't cooperate at all," said Trowa, "Just that it was harder for you than the rest of us. You knew us and were familiar with our skills by the time we all formed a team on _Peacemillion_. You've only known Lunamaria for two days."

Wufei folded his arms. "What are you getting at?"

"That there's something about her that presses one of your buttons," Trowa replied, "Does that sound about right?"

Wufei shook his head. "You're imagining things."

"Are you sure?" said Trowa, a rare smirk on his face, "I'm not the only one who might be 'imagining things'. Quatre's picked up on it too."

Wufei glared at his fellow Gundam pilot. "It's nothing."

Trowa shrugged. "Whatever you say. Just don't let Duo notice. You know him; he'll never let you hear the end of it."

"There's nothing for him to notice," said Wufei, a little more forcefully than he had intended.

Trowa nodded and headed for the cafeteria door. "All right. Catch you later."

Wufei shook his head in frustration as his fellow Gundam pilot moved on. Of all people, he hadn't expected Trowa to go in _that_ direction with him…

_She's just an ally_, he thought, _and she has some of… __**her **__spirit. That's all there is to this._

_ Just reminders of a past that refuses to stay at peace…_

….

Smiling as she left the bridge, Meyrin immediately made her way towards the _Minerva_'s cafeteria. It wasn't just because she was hungry, although the stress of a battle and the subsequent adrenaline letdown was certainly one way to work up an appetite. There was a particular pilot that she was hoping to run into down there.

_I hope he's there_, she thought, her heart fluttering as the pilot's face flashed through her mind, _I mean, Deathscythe Omega did return today, so I know for sure he's alive. I just have to find him._

She shook her head. Just what was wrong with her? She'd known Duo for all of two days and barely knew a thing about him. He wasn't a ZAFT pilot and not even a PLANT citizen. He was part of Heero Yuy's group, and the Demon Lord of Avalon had made it quite clear that their alliance with the crew of the _Minerva _was very much a temporary one. She didn't know how long they planned on staying on the ship; they could leave any day with hardly any notice.

Still, he'd saved her life in yesterday's battle, and Meyrin doubted that today's fight would've gone as well as it had without his help. True, Bogey One had evaded them yet again, and the modified _Salvager_-class ship had escaped as well, but the rest of the enemy battle group had been wiped out. Meyrin considered that to be a victory, especially since there had been no friendly casualties.

Duo may be keeping secrets from her, but that was only natural given their brief acquaintance and the incredibly advanced nature of his mobile suit. He'd still been kind to her and seemed like a nice guy. Despite the severity of the situation that the _Minerva _had found itself in, Duo was always relaxed, with a smirk or smile on his face, and Meyrin had found that to be very encouraging.

The fact that he was cute didn't hurt either.

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts about the pilot of Deathscythe Omega that she failed to pay attention to where she was going. Meyrin was abruptly brought back to reality when she collided head on with a figure wearing a black flight suit.

"I'm so sorry!" she said, bowing her head in embarrassment.

"It's okay," said a male voice, not belonging to the pilot she'd been thinking about but still familiar nonetheless.

Looking up, she was startled to see that it was none other than Heero Yuy that she had collided with. Her cheeks flushed in further embarrassment. To just absently run right into the most famous pilot in the Earth Sphere like that… who knew what he would think of her for doing something like that?

"Are you all right?" he asked.

Meyrin nodded, surprised that he would take the time to care about someone as minor as her. "Uhm, yes, thank you."

Heero nodded. As he turned to continue down the hallway Meyrin remembered that he was a friend of Duo's and pounced on the opportunity.

"Hey, uhm, Mr. Yuy?" she said.

He turned back to her. "Just call me Heero. What is it?"

"Well, Heero," she said, "have you seen Duo since the battle?"

The famous pilot nodded. "He's still down in the hangar bay."

"Oh," said Meyrin, "Is he all right?"

Heero nodded again, looking slightly puzzled. "He's doing fine. He's just looking over Deathscythe Omega."

Meyrin nodded. "I see. Thank you!"

"You're welcome," said Heero.

She was sure that the young man was watching her as she changed directions, heading down the corridor that would take her towards the hangar. Meyrin couldn't blame him; she hadn't exactly been subtle about her concerns for Duo. It didn't really matter, though. As long as she got to talk to him again Heero could think whatever he wanted. Seeing him down in the hangar would actually be a bonus; if she was lucky he'd show her more of Deathscythe Omega. It was a very fascinating mobile suit, especially since its cloaking technology apparently didn't involve the Mirage Colloid system.

Picking up her pace, she headed for the hangar as quick as she could go. When she arrived it was not hard to find the mobile suit she was looking for; the five Gundams definitely stood out in a crowd.

There was Deathscythe Omega, a mechanical embodiment of the Grim Reaper if there ever was one. If it had been an imposing sight on the bridge monitor, its intimidation factor was ratcheted up tenfold upon seeing it in person like this. Meyrin could not help but suppress a shudder as she approached. It was hard to believe that such a dark and demonic machine was flown by such a relaxed and friendly pilot. Apart from the black attire Duo seemed to favor he didn't appear to have anything in common with his mobile suit.

Duo wasn't hard to spot; he was floating in front of his mobile suit. The cockpit was closed and he didn't appear to be doing any work on the exterior. He was just looking at the machine with a smirk on his face.

As Meyrin got closer she heard him chuckle. "So I'm back to being the God of Death, huh?"

_God of Death?_, she thought, _He said that in yesterday's battle, and in today's. Does that really mean something to him?_

He must've realized that he was being watched because he then looked over and gave her a smile. "Hey, how's it going?"

Meyrin smiled as she came up to him. "Pretty good. I'm glad the fight's over. How about you?"

Duo shrugged. "Still alive, along with everyone else on our side. Can't really complain with a result like that."

Meyrin nodded. "I guess you're right. Still, I wish we could've captured Bogey One."

"It would've been nice," Duo replied, "but I guess it just wasn't in the cards."

He seemed quite at ease about the situation, which was a stark contrast to everyone up on the bridge. Meyrin was glad she had decided to come down to see him; after the dour mood of her fellow bridge officers and the Captain upon the escape of Bogey One and the other ship fleeing towards the Earth Alliance's Lunar Perimeter she could definitely use some of Duo's relaxed nature.

"It really doesn't bother you?" she asked, "I mean, wasn't that the whole point of the operation?"

Duo nodded. "Sure, but if I let every setback get me down I'd be a wreck. You gotta keep things in perspective."

"How?" she asked.

Duo smiled. "Look at it this way. We all live to fight another day, and we kicked some ass in the process. The enemy turned and ran because we scared them shitless. Sure, the main target got away, but with the way things are going lately I'm sure we'll run into them again soon enough."

Meyrin smiled, encouraged by his optimism. "You're probably right about that. The sooner we encounter them again the sooner we'll be able to bring them to justice for the attack on Armory One."

"Still," said Duo, "let's not be in a rush to jump into the next fight. Gotta take breaks when you can, you know?"

Meyrin nodded. "Yeah, I guess I didn't really think about it like that."

"Don't sweat it," Duo replied, "You're still new to all this. You'll pick up little bits of wisdom as you go along. We all do."

"Even you?" she asked.

"Hey," said Duo, "no one starts out as a pro. You learn with experience and time, simple as that."

It was nice to hear him say that. Ever since the battle at Armory One Meyrin had been acutely aware of just how raw and inexperienced both she and the rest of the _Minerva_'s crew were. Captain Gladys may have fought in the last war, but considering she was practically the only person on the new battleship with that sort of experience it was difficult for her to really transfer that to her crew. She gave sound commands and was a calm center on the bridge, but without equally experienced subordinates there was only so much she could do. Meyrin could only hope that with time she and the others would be able to learn from the Captain and become more effective in their roles.

That was one of the reasons why having Heero, Duo, and the other Gundam pilots with them was such a big deal. Not only were their mobile suits incredibly powerful, but the experience of the pilots was just as formidable. They handled themselves on the battlefield with confidence and skill born from prior battles, and while Meyrin had read the official stories about Heero's fights there was no such information available about Duo and the other three pilots. They were completely absent from the chronicles of the Bloody Valentine War, but it was abundantly clear that they were not green pilots.

What battles had Duo fought in? Why had he and Deathscythe Omega remained off the radar until now? Those were just two of the scores of questions Meyrin wanted answered about the self-proclaimed God of Death.

"So," said Duo, "what brings you down here?"

Meyrin blushed as she tried to think of an answer. "Well… I wanted to see your mobile suit."

She was relieved to see Duo nod. "All right, although you know that I can't tell you all its secrets, right?"

Meyrin nodded. "That's okay. I understand."

The two of them looked up at the Gundam for a moment. Glancing over at Duo, Meyrin saw him smile fondly at his mobile suit. He was clearly quite attached to it, and Meyrin guessed that he'd been through a lot with that machine.

"Pretty fitting for my line of work, wouldn't you agree?" said Duo.

Meyrin was puzzled. "What do you mean?"

Duo gestured at his Gundam. "Well, it's only right that the God of Death flies a mobile suit modeled on the Grim Reaper, don't you think?"

"Why do you call yourself that?" asked Meyrin, "The God of Death, I mean."

Duo chuckled. "Oh, that. Remember how I mentioned that I was an orphan and spent some time in a church?"

Meyrin nodded. "What was that like?"

"It was okay while it lasted," he replied, "There were good people in that place. We had out disagreements, sure, but they still looked after me like I was one of their own. One of those disagreements was how I decided on that little nickname."

"What do you mean?" asked Meyrin.

"Well," said Duo, "for starters I told them that there was no god. I thought that if there was a god then he would make it so there wouldn't be any more wars… and no more orphans like me."

The young man was still smiling, but Meyrin didn't miss the hint of melancholy that had crept into his voice. She wanted to grab his hand but couldn't summon the nerve to do it, so she just waited for him to continue his story.

"The priest in charge of the church," said Duo, "told me that wars aren't started by god, but by people, and people have to end what they begin. All I got from that was that it didn't matter if there was a god or not, and if there was one then it could only be a death god."

"So," said Meyrin, "you don't believe in the god that monotheistic religions recognize… but you believe in the Grim Reaper?"

Duo smirked. "Well, miracles are supposed to be a sign of the god that those faiths believe in, right? I've never seen a miracle, but I've seen plenty of dead people. You see where I'm going with this?"

Meyrin nodded.

"Anyway," he continued, "after a while I kinda decided I liked the moniker, so I took it. That's the end of that story."

_But what about the church you were staying at?_, she thought, _What happened to them? You said you stayed there for a little while, and that it was 'okay while it lasted.' How did it come to an end?_

She wanted to go into that, but the way Duo had cut the story off indicated he didn't want to go near it. Meyrin could only imagine that something awful had happened at the church that had ended his time there, and that it was too painful for him to talk about.

"Well," said Duo, shaking her out of her thoughts, "as long as we're playing Twenty Questions, I've got one for you if you don't mind."

Meyrin's eyes widened. "For me? Uhm, okay… go ahead."

"Why's someone like you in ZAFT?" he asked, "Look, don't take this the wrong way, but you don't exactly strike me as the soldier type."

Meyrin smiled sheepishly. "It's okay. I get that a lot."

Duo chuckled. "I'm sure. So, why join up?"

"Well," said Meyrin, "my sister was the one who really wanted to join up. Honestly, I was pretty torn; my scores on technical aptitude tests could've gotten me into any college in the PLANTs. Lunamaria was really set on getting into ZAFT though, and I wound up following her."

Duo smiled. "You really care about her, don't you?"

Meyrin nodded. "Well, of course. She's my sister, after all. Wouldn't you want to stick with a sibling and help them out?"

"Orphan, remember?" said Duo, "Also, pretty sure I was an only child."

Meyrin looked down in embarrassment. "Oh, sorry!"

"Don't worry about it," said Duo, smiling again, "So, was it really just wanting to help out your sister that brought you in?"

Meyrin shook his head. "Well, to be honest, there was more to it than that. The other reason… well, it's kind of selfish. It wasn't really about duty or protecting people like others who join up."

"Nothing wrong with that," Duo replied, "So, what was it?"

"Technology," she said, "I've always been fascinated by advanced technology, and ZAFT's at the forefront of research and development in the PLANTs. Since it's fully government funded their labs can really push the envelope, and because of that our soldiers have access to some of the most advanced equipment and weaponry in the Earth Sphere."

Duo nodded. "You guys do have some pretty impressive machines. Also, this battleship's no joke."

"Well," said Meyrin, "the _Minerva _is the newest and most advanced ship in the fleet. Lunamaria did really well in the ZAFT academy's piloting courses, so she graduated as a Red and was assigned to the ship as one of its pilots. I never really had an aptitude for piloting, but I scored at the top of my class in data management and communications. That made me a natural choice for bridge duty, and so I got to follow my sister to the _Minerva_."

"How did you feel about the posting?" asked Duo.

Meyrin smiled. She wasn't normally a talkative young woman, but for some reason it felt really good to be telling Duo about herself like this.

"It was an honor," she said, "I mean, they chose _me _to work on the bridge of the newest and most sophisticated ship in the fleet! Plus, since I coordinate the mobile suits in action that means I get to directly support my sister. For a posting straight out of the academy, this is about as good as I can get."

"What about the action?" said Duo, "You're bridge crew on a battleship, which means you're front line personnel now. Are you sure that's what you signed up for?"

Meyrin sighed. "Well, I'll admit I wasn't expecting to be thrown into a fight so soon. I mean, whoever attacked Armory One struck before the _Minerva_'s official launching ceremony, so I know I'm not the only one in the crew who feels like they're in over their head here. I knew that joining ZAFT meant that I could end up in battle sooner or later, but still… I didn't expect anything quite like this."

Duo nodded. "Don't feel bad about that. Your first time in a life-or-death fight is never going to be what you expect it to be."

Meyrin's eyes widened. "Really? So it was the same for you and your fellow pilots?"

"Yes and no," Duo replied, "I mean, I know we all entered the battlefield in our own fashion, but I'm pretty sure that none of us really had a good idea of what our first time in a fight would be like until we actually got into that fight."

"I see," said Meyrin, "and… when did you first start fighting?"

Duo closed his eyes for a moment. "Way earlier than you, kid. Sorry, but that's all I'm saying on that subject for now."

Meyrin nodded, disappointed in his answer but respecting his decision. "All right. Sorry, I didn't mean to pry."

Duo smiled. "Don't worry about it. I'm hungry, so what do you say we grab a bite to eat?"

Meyrin returned the smile. "Sounds good to me."

….

_It's really quite a view_, thought Quatre, _I should try to come over here a little more while I'm still on this ship._

As a child of the colonies, there was something about looking out a viewport at the stars that the L4 native found comforting and relaxing. It hadn't taken long for Quatre to find his way over to the _Minerva_'s officers' lounge, and while he may not have had clearance to be there it was a very simple matter to bypass the meager security in place. He was glad he'd come here; it was a good place to unwind. His view of the stars was far from clear since they were still traveling through the orbital Debris Belt, but Quatre didn't mind that at all. The vast field of floating scrap actually served to enhance the view in a way; it was a glimpse into the Cosmic Era's accumulated history.

It was hard for Quatre to believe that he and the others had only been in the Cosmic Era for about two days. The fact that they'd already been involved in two battles in that time period was not exactly an auspicious start to their mission. Sure, they'd found Heero, but with his flat out refusal to return to their world with them their mission looked to be a failure. Quatre wasn't sure if there was any way to talk Heero around to their side; he'd seemed fairly adamant in his decision.

Once again his mind went back to the debriefing Heero had given them yesterday… and more specifically, the almost unconscious way his demeanor had changed whenever he had spoken of Murrue Ramius.

_He has something with her_, he thought, _She's the real reason why he's so determined to stay here. I wonder what really happened between them…_

Quatre shrugged. Heero had said that they would 'see in due time', and they really had no choice but to trust him on that.

He heard the door open behind him, and in the window he could see a familiar reflection.

"I figured you'd find this place sooner or later," said Heero.

Quatre turned around and smiled. "I'm going to place a bet and say that you've already been in here."

Heero nodded as he joined Quatre at the viewport. "You hardly need to be an expert to break through the security."

Quatre chuckled. "I guess the _Minerva_'s officers' lounge isn't so exclusive when the likes of us are on board, huh?"

"That's one way to put it," Heero replied as he looked out the viewport.

The two of them were quiet for a moment before Quatre spoke. "It's almost like old times. We've only been here two days and we've already gotten into as many fights. We really don't know how to stay out of trouble, do we?"

Heero nodded. "Old habits die hard, as they say."

"Yeah," said Quatre, "I don't know what I was expecting when I signed up for this mission, but… well, I definitely didn't see this coming."

"The Cosmic Era's an interesting world," said Heero, "Depending on where you look, it's not hard to find either stark differences from the old world or eerie similarities."

_The old world_, thought Quatre, _He really doesn't think of the After Colony era as his world anymore, does he?_

Quatre smiled and nodded, hoping he wasn't betraying his thoughts to Heero. "You've got that right. I wonder what the others back home would've thought of it."

"You'll have to show them the data from Sandrock when you return," said Heero, "I'm sure they'll find it interesting."

"Couldn't you show them yourself?" asked Quatre.

Heero shook his head. "Let's not start this again, Quatre. I've made myself clear. I'm _not _going back. That world is no longer my home. The Cosmic Era is."

Quatre sighed. "Well, at least one thing about you hasn't changed. You're as stubborn as ever, Heero."

"It's a survival trait," his old friend deadpanned.

Quatre chuckled. "Yeah, I guess so."

"So," said Heero, "will you accept that your mission is a failure? It's no fault of your own; it was doomed before it started."

"I thought loosing battles were a specialty of ours," Quatre quipped with a smirk.

Heero nodded. "True enough, but you should know me well enough to realize that I am set on my decision."

Quatre gave him a knowing smile. "This Murrue Ramius must be quite a woman."

Heero was quiet for a moment before giving a small chuckle and smirk. "How did you know?"

"It was a guess," Quatre replied, "You just confirmed it."

Heero chuckled again. "Still masking that cunning with an innocent face, I see. You haven't changed either."

Quatre smirked. "Well, like you said, old habits die hard."

Heero nodded. "Indeed. Do me a favor and don't tell the others about her, all right? I told her I'd save that surprise for when I introduce her to you."

Quatre smiled. "Sure thing. I can't wait to see Duo's reaction."

"Yeah," said Heero, "It should be interesting."

The two of them looked back out the viewport for a moment before Heero spoke again. "He was so damn close, Quatre. So damn close to stopping them in their tracks."

"You mean Shinn?" he replied, "You know it wasn't his fault that Bogey One got away, right? Those flare missiles would've tripped up any of us."

"I know," said Heero, "and yesterday the exploding spare fuel tanks did the same for us. I can keep things in perspective, Quatre. Still… this is going to cost us."

"You really think it's the Earth Alliance that's behind this?" asked Quatre, "After just how close the Cosmic Era came to annihilation in the last war, do you really think that they'd be willing to start up a new conflict?"

"Not just them," said Heero, a dark look in his eyes, "I think they may have a willing partner in reigniting hostilities."

"Who?" asked Quatre.

"Durandal," Heero replied, "He has his own game underway."

Quatre listened as Heero described the conversation he'd had with the PLANT Supreme Council Chairman the day before. When his friend was done Quatre looked out the viewport for a moment before responding.

"You really think he was baiting them?" he asked, "An entire colony seems like it'd be a little too valuable to use for something like that."

"I think he was hoping they'd wait until the entire colony city was up and running and then blockade it," said Heero, "Still, either way the result is the same; tensions are rising. They already were even before the attack due in no small part to the construction of the _Minerva _and the prototype mobile suits being developed with her, but this strike will ratchet things up even more."

"But why would Durandal want a new war?" asked Quatre, "The Earth Alliance I can understand if the underlying power that motivated it to start hostilities in the last conflict was never truly vanquished, but from what you've told me it doesn't look like the Chairman was ever a member of Patrick Zala's faction. Unlike the Earth Alliance, the PLANTs seem to have removed the old regime completely, or at least the parts that were most closely associated to Patrick Zala's agenda."

"I didn't say that I knew the reason why Durandal would seek a new conflict," said Heero, "Just that I think he has a hand to play in this."

"Should I tell the others?" asked Quatre.

Heero shrugged. "Do what you will. Right now we just don't know enough about the forces at work here."

"Maybe," said Quatre, "but we've got cards to play, especially considering all the friends you made in the last war."

Heero nodded. "I've been keeping in touch with them since the attack on the colony. They're on the move, though hopefully we won't need to call upon them for anything more than a place to lay low once we ditch the _Minerva_."

"Any idea when that might be?" asked Quatre.

"That depends," Heero replied, "I know right now that the _Minerva_'s moving to link up with other elements of the ZAFT fleet, and depending on how that goes it could force our hand."

"If we have to leave the _Minerva_," said Quatre, "do your friends have enough room for our Gundams?"

"Yes," said Heero, "Storage and maintenance will not be a problem. I think you'll be impressed with their capabilities."

Quatre smiled. "Well, that's one less thing to worry about then."

"Once we meet up with them," said Heero, "I'll introduce you to someone who can make use of the data you brought over here. She'll be able to get things set up for your return to the old world, although it will take some time."

"I'm sure it will," Quatre replied, "and it sounds like we'll have plenty to do in the meanwhile."

Heero shook his head. "This isn't your fight, Quatre. You don't owe the Cosmic Era anything."

"Maybe," said Quatre, "but I still want to help you clean things up a little here before we head back. I think the others would agree with me as well. As it stands now the world could very well be on the brink of another massive war. None of us would feel right if we left you here to face something like that without trying to help out."

"Can you really speak for the others on that?" asked Heero.

Quatre smiled. "Come on, Heero, you should know us better than that even if you've been gone for over two years. Duo and Trowa will definitely want to help out. So will Wufei, although he'll have his own reasons, of course. He always does."

Heero nodded, though Quatre was concerned when he saw his eyes narrow. "His own reasons… yes. That would've applied to him coming out here as well. I wonder what they were."

Quatre shrugged. "He's always been something of a wild card. That hasn't changed much over the past two years either."

"I'm sure," said Heero, "He's as stubborn as they come, although you could say that about any Gundam pilot"

Quatre chuckled. "True enough."

The two of them looked out the window again for a moment before Heero spoke again. "I know you guys didn't come out here to fight another war, but I'm grateful that you're willing to help me out with this."

"Hey," said Quatre, "that's what friends are for, right?"

Heero surprised him with a small smile. "Yes… old friends and new."

Quatre smiled as well. "We'll figure out how all this fits together, Heero, and then we'll put a stop to it. We always do."

"Just don't expect it to be easy," said Heero.

"Hey," Quatre replied, "since when do Gundam pilots ever get the easy jobs?"

Heero chuckled. "Good point."

….

On the monitor, Colonel Nazara saw Djibril scowl as he finished his report. His face was set in an expression that could only be described as barely contained fury, and the Colonel had to wonder just how long it would be before that rage boiled over.

"Is there anything else?" the head of LOGOS asked, his voice an icy dagger.

Nazara shook his head. "That is all, my lord."

Djibril sighed. "So you managed to get nearly an entire Black Fleet battle group wiped out? Your second one in as many days?"

Nazara grit his teeth. "The power of the upgraded Wing Zero and the four new machines that fly with it is considerable."

"You do realize that it's not just warships and mobile suits that you have lost," Djibril growled, "nor are those ordinary soldiers that are being mowed down like wheat in a field by those five machines. Each and every member of the Black Fleet was handpicked for that top secret force due to the invaluable combination of both their combat experience and their ideological commitment. They are not the common trash of our conventional forces; such casualties are much harder to replace."

"I'm well aware of that, my lord," said Nazara through his clenched jaw.

The tension building in the air was like that of the atmosphere before a great tornado was unleashed. It was only a matter of _when_, not _if_, the storm would cut loose. Nazara knew that he could only brace himself and weather the inevitable tempest.

"When I placed the Black Fleet under your command for this operation," said Lord Djibril, "you assured me that Force Alpha would be more than sufficient for the task. Force Beta was positioned nearby as a strategic reserve in the unlikely event that ZAFT would beat you back and inflict significant losses, but you were supremely confident that those reinforcements would not be needed."

_A confidence that you had as well, you blind piece of shit_, Nazara silently fumed, _You're as much to blame for this catastrophe as I am, if not more so._

"We had no knowledge of the upgraded Wing Zero or the other four mobile suits," he said, "Intel completely dropped the ball."

"Yes," Djibril hissed, "but _you _failed to adapt when they took the field! You're supposed to be one of our best pilots, and have been given one of the best mobile suits in the Earth Sphere, but in both engagements you barely managed to save your own skin! Are you our Phantom Commander or a damn coward?"

This time Nazara could not suppress a snarl. "Why don't _you _try taking the field against the Demon Lord of Avalon and his four new friends, _my lord_?"

He all but spat out those last two words. Djibril wasn't worth the toilet paper he used to wipe his ass with, let alone such an honorific.

"Insolent bastard!" yelled Djibril, "If it weren't for the fact that your abilities are needed now more than ever I would have you spaced!"

Nazara smirked. "Lucky me none of our other pilots come close to my level of skill. Save the threats, _my lord_. As long as Heero Yuy lives you know that you can't replace me. I may have been defeated by him three times now, but remember that I have also now _survived _three fights with him. Very few pilots can lay claim to _that _achievement."

"You're a prideful looser, aren't you?" Djibril growled, "A pity your arrogance hasn't gotten you killed already."

_I could say the same for you_, thought Nazara, _and it may yet if I have anything to say about it…_

"Are we done here?" Nazara hissed, "If all we're going to do is trade barbs then this would really be a waste of time."

"Fine,' said Djibril with a glare, "but if you fail again, do not expect me to be so lenient, Colonel."

"Whatever you say, my lord," Nazara replied.

"At least this mission was not a total loss," said Djibril, "From what Rear Admiral Xen has reported it sounds like she got more than enough combat data from her Moebius A.I. units during the battle."

"So she'll finally be able to apply the program to mobile suits?" asked Nazara.

"Xen says it will take a little time to make the necessary programming updates," Djibril replied, "but Project Iron Legion is at long last ready to enter its final stage. Simulation and live-fire trials should be underway within weeks, and from there it will be just a short delay before we're able to deploy the first combat units."

"I hope they're more effective than the Moebius units Xen deployed earlier today," said Nazara.

"Those were merely proof-of-concept testing units," said Djibril, "They were never meant to challenge the likes of Wing Zero. Even on mobile suit platforms I doubt an individual unit can defeat Heero Yuy… but an army of them would be a very different story. They'll be a nasty surprise for the Coordinators as well; according to Xen they'll be able to perform maneuvers with far greater precision than those genetic freaks ever could."

"Do you really think Xen can deliver as advertised?" Nazara scoffed.

Djibril glared at him. "Considering Xen's part of today's operation was the only portion that could be thought of as a success, I trust her confidence far more than I do _yours _at the moment."

Nazara grit his teeth. "Touché."

"Indeed," said Djibril with a smug smirk on his face, "Project Iron Legion won't be ready in time for the opening hostilities, but it will be able to make its debut soon enough. Our enemies won't know what hit them."

"So," said Nazara, "do we actually have a timeframe now on when this new war will finally begin?"

Djibril smiled and chuckled. "Yes, and it's actually looking to be ahead of our original projections thanks to some very interesting intelligence we just received."

"Really?" said Nazara skeptically, arching an eyebrow under his mask, "Just what would that be?"

"A report from one of our scout ships patrolling the Debris Belt," Djibril replied, "A copy will be forwarded to the _Girty Lue_. Once you see it I'm sure that you'll agree that the catalyst we've been looking for is here."

"If you say so," said Nazara.

"Scoff now if you like," said Djibril, "but I guarantee that you'll change your tune once you read the report."

"Will this 'catalyst' you speak of involve my ship at some point?" asked Nazara.

"Perhaps," Djibril replied, "We may need you to run interference in order to make sure events follow the proper course."

"If that's the case," said Nazara, "then I will need my Dagger Ls and Extended restocked again."

"Yes, yes," said Djibril dismissively, "You'll have your replacements, Colonel. Do try not to expend them so quickly this time."

"It would be easier if you'd put more than one Wind of Destruction at my disposal," said Nazara, "Minuano may have followed the retreat order, but before that he was holding his own against one of the new machines, and in the raid on Armory One he crippled the Strike knockoff quite easily."

"Mistral, Monsoon, and Sundowner are presently engaged in other operations," said Djibril, "In all likelihood they will be unavailable for the coming mission. You'll have to make do with your usual fare and whatever two Extended I can send your way. A resourceful commander should have no trouble using them effectively. You'd best prove that you _are_, in fact, a resourceful commander."

Nazara grimaced. "Very well, my lord."

Djibril chuckled. "Don't look so down, Colonel. We may have suffered a few setbacks over the past 48 hours, but Lady Luck is about to smile upon us."

"I'll take your word for it," said Nazara.

"Rendezvous coordinates will be included with the report you'll be receiving," said Djibril, "Make for them as soon as you get them. A carrier will be sent to provide your reinforcements."

"Understood," Nazara replied.

Djibril nodded. "The eve of war approaches, Colonel. With the success of this operation we will be one step closer to restoring the world to its proper state. We will cleanse it with fire and blood, and this time _nothing _will be able to stand against us."

"For the preservation of our blue and pure world," said Nazara.

"Just so," the head of Blue Cosmos and LOGOS replied, "Djibril, out."

….

Floating in the middle of the _Dominion_'s hangar bay, the twenty-year old Lan Zhao had her dark brown eyes closed in concentration. A bead of sweat came down her pale skin, while her long black hair was tied up out of the way in a ponytail. Rather than her black flight suit or modified Orb military uniform, the beautiful Chinese Coordinator was dressed in black sweat pants and a tank top that did little to conceal her lithe and athletic figure. It was cooler in the hangar than in other parts of the ship, but since Lan was in the middle of a unique zero-g exercise she'd developed she didn't mind the drop in temperature a bit.

_Five… four... three…_, she mentally counted down as she felt herself slowly descend towards the hangar floor, _two… one…_

At zero she felt her feet touch down on the surface, and she immediately kicked off. Flying through the hangar, her body twisted and flowed through a series of flips before she began a sequence of kicks and punches. After a few seconds she braced herself as the ceiling rapidly approached. Lan once again closed her eyes and began her silent countdown; the real trick for her was seeing if she had her timing precisely right.

Sure enough, as her mental timer hit zero she felt her feet touch the ceiling, and once again she kicked off. Her body spun through another series of kicks and punches as she descended towards the hangar floor again.

This wasn't just exercise for the sake of keeping in shape, nor was it improvised martial arts training done for enjoyment. Ever since word had reached her and her friends of the attack on Armory One and other related developments, Lan had found herself on edge, and this was as good a way as any to blow off some steam. It was a combination of nervous anticipation and excitement. On the one hand, the last thing that she wanted to be doing was flying into another battle. Yes, she had trained for the possibility along with the rest of her friends and allies over the past two years and was keenly aware that their purpose was to take to the battlefield if the world was threatened with another disastrous war, but she had always maintained hope that they would somehow be able to avoid coming to that point. On the other hand, the thought of who she may very well get to fly and fight alongside with in the near future had her heart absolutely racing.

_Just one of them was unlike any other man I've met before_, she thought, _A god among mortals if there ever was one. A prince of the battlefield, a true lord of combat… and a handsome devil to boot. Heero Yuy… you chose Murrue Ramius, and I've accepted that, even embraced it. However…_

_ …now I've got your four old friends to take a shot at!_

The pilot of Wing Zero had told her and the others about the other four Gundam pilots of his old world, those incredible young men who had shaken the foundations of his old world, those unrivaled masters of the art of war. For so long, Lan had thought that the chance to meet any of them was nothing more than a pipe dream, an idle fantasy.

Now it was quite real, and she could hardly wait for what she was certain was their inevitable encounter.

Lan found herself smiling as she continued her exercises. Regardless of what happened next, it was clear that the future had some exciting things in store for her.

It was enough to make her forget that the one year anniversary of her mother's death was coming up…

…at least for a little while.

"Little hot under the collar, Lan?" said a familiar female voice.

As she touched down on the hangar floor again Lan turned to see her two best friends approaching. The one that had spoken was the twenty-one year old Adaline Bellerose, an Australian born Coordinator with long and flowing red-hair, dark and deep blue eyes, and the body of a surfer. Next to her was the twenty year old Italian/Romanian Coordinator Priscilla Dalca, her long blonde hair unrestrained rather than held up in its usual ponytail, and her gentle green eyes with an amused look in them. Lan couldn't blame her for that; both of her friends knew her well enough to take a good guess at what had been occupying most of her thoughts since the news of the other four Gundam pilots' arrival in their world.

Lan chuckled as she approached her friends, both of whom were wearing Orb military uniforms sans rank insignia. "That obvious, huh?"

Adaline smirked. "Let's see, I believe your exact reaction when Shemei told us Heero's old friends had showed up was '_Oh my fucking god, they're here! Which ones are single?_' Then you fangirl squeed for a good five minutes straight. Sound about right?"

Lan had to laugh at that. "Yeah, I think that's about how it went down. Come on, though; you two were pretty excited too if I recall correctly."

Priscilla turned to Adaline and smiled. "She's not wrong there."

Adaline nodded. "All right, you've got me there."

"So," said Lan, "what brings you two down here?"

"We were going to grab a bite to eat," said Adaline, "Want to come with?"

Lan nodded. "Sure. Food sounds good right about now."

"I'll bet," said Priscilla as the three of them headed towards the exit, "That workout looked pretty intense."

Lan smiled. "Yeah, but it's actually pretty fun. You should try it sometime."

Priscilla shook her head. "No way. I don't have the same kind of balance and coordination that you do. If I tried that I'd probably smack my head against the ceiling or something. I can outshoot you, but as far as martial arts go, that's definitely your field."

Lan nodded. "Can't argue with that. That was the reason Shemei wanted you to go with Heero and La Flaga when they hit the _Dominion _in the last war, after all."

"It's still kinda hard to believe," said Adaline as they headed through the ship's corridors towards the mess, "To think that this was once Muruta Azrael's flagship, and now it belongs to us, a group that's dedicated to the peaceful coexistence of both Coordinators and Naturals… man, talk about ironic."

Lan smirked. "No kidding. Bastard must be rolling in his grave right now."

"What grave?" asked Priscilla with a smile, "Badgiruel had his body spaced after the battle, remember? I know there were heavy cleanup efforts undertaken after the fight, but the odds of someone actually finding his body in that mess were slim to none, especially since he was only wearing a business suit; he wouldn't have had a space suit's built-in beacon. He's probably still floating through space right now, unless a ship plowed into him and splattered his guts on the hull."

"Fine," said Lan, "Then he's metaphorically rolling in his nonexistent grave. There, happy, Pris?"

Priscilla laughed. "Close enough."

"Speaking of graves," said Adaline, "A lot of people have been sent to theirs over the past few days thanks to Heero and his friends. Two rogue task forces all but completely wiped out… the boys are on a roll."

Lan smiled. "No kidding. Man, I can't wait to catch up to them and see them in action!"

"You do realize that us 'seeing them in action' will quite likely mean another large scale battle, right?" said Priscilla as they entered the mess, "As much as I would like to meet the other four Gundam pilots, I would rather avoid combat if possible."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," said Lan.

"By the way," said Priscilla as the three of them dished up, "what makes you say that those two task forces were rogue, Adaline? From what I've heard so far Shemei and the others suspect that they're Earth Alliance black ops units."

"It's just a figure of speech," Adaline replied, "I'm betting the Alliance is behind it too, although proving it's going to be pretty tough."

"No kidding," said Lan as they found a table, "Slippery bastards. If they want to start another war then they're going to have to fight us as well. By now they know that Wing Zero's back, and you'd think that'd be enough of a deterrent right there."

"The Alliance has always been arrogant," said Adaline while digging into her sandwich, "and they've had two years to research new technologies and weapons. They must believe that whatever they've developed in that time period is sufficient to let them fight against both ZAFT and us."

"Don't forget that the Earth forces do hold a numerical advantage," Priscilla chimed in, "While the Treaty of Junius Seven may have reduced the size of the militaries maintained by both the Earth Alliance and ZAF, the Alliance still holds the largest standing army and fleet in the Earth Sphere."

"But it's not a completely united entity," Lan reminded them, "The Atlantic Federation has the core forces, but the Eurasian Federation and the Republic of East Asia also make contributions. Even without those two portions the Atlantic Federation still maintains the largest force in the Earth Sphere, but going to war without the full support of the other two members of the Earth Alliance would be a far riskier proposition."

"Especially since the main anti-Coordinator faction in the Eurasian Federation was removed from power at the end of the last war," said Adaline in between bites, "and the Blue Cosmos-like factions over in East Asia have never really gotten close to gaining political dominance. It'll be interesting to see how the Atlantic Federation ropes the other two nations into going along with its war."

"It may not even matter if the other two go along or not," said Priscilla, "Blue Cosmos holds enough sway in the Atlantic Federation to make them go it alone if they have to, and their hatred of us hasn't diminished over the past two years."

"Jeez," said Lan as she took a sip of her water, "Don't those guys got anything better to do other than hate on us because someone tweaked our genes in the womb? Seriously, they need to go get laid or something."

The three of them shared a laugh at that, although privately the thought of a group that could hate their race so deeply that they would ignite a new global war for the chance to kill them was far from funny. It was a sobering and depressing notion, but the way Lan saw it, if she let that get her down then it was the same as letting her enemies win.

The three of them focused on their food for a bit before Adaline spoke. "No matter what happens, we can't let them win. If we can't stop them from starting another war then damn well better finish it on _our _terms. Too many people could die if things go their way."

Priscilla nodded. "Agreed. It won't just be L5 at risk, either. The entire world could be drawn into the conflagration. Azrael's dreams went beyond just our annihilation; he wanted the entire Earth Sphere under his dominion."

"So did Patrick Zala," said Lan darkly, "He and Azrael shared that same dark ambition. Who's to say there aren't people in ZAFT or the PLANTs government today that share the same desire for conquest and death?"

"Of all things that could be cross cultural," said Adaline with a sigh, "why did warmongering and carnage have to be one of them?"

"Human nature," Priscilla replied grimly, "Despite the radical faction's claims to the contrary, Coordinators are just as human as Naturals are. Our genes are modified and our abilities enhanced, but in the end we're people just like they are. Dreams and nightmares, love and hate, the capacity for good or evil… we have all that and more in common. The likes of Muruta Azrael and Patrick Zala could never see that, but for those of us with perspective and sanity it's all too obvious."

Lan smirked and elbowed her blonde friend. "Are you sure you weren't a philosopher in a past life?"

Priscilla blushed and gave a sheepish smile. "Well, who can say?"

"I don't know what to say to that," Adaline chimed in, "but I do know what to say to anyone in the Earth Alliance and ZAFT who thinks they can make the rest of the Earth Sphere submit to their ambitions; they got to go through us first."

"Hell yeah," said Lan, "and this time we've got some new friends in our corner."

"Including four very recent arrivals," said Priscilla with a knowing smile, "If the Earth Alliance and ZAFT hated fighting Heero in the last war, then I can only imagine their dismay once they learn that they now must contend with four more young men of his caliber."

Lan chuckled. "Yeah, they're fucked. They're just too stupid to know it yet."

"So," said Adaline as she raised her drink, "what do you say to educating them on just how fucked they are?"

Lan and Priscilla followed suit, clinking their bottles with Adaline's.

"I'll drink to that," said Lan.

….

**October 4****th****, C.E. 73**

His eyelids were heavy from lack of sleep, but Commander Michael Cortez of the rogue _Laurasia_-class frigate _Curie _refused to turn in now. He remained on the bridge, determined to be present when the ship received the final confirmation from the engineering teams working on the desolate surface of the ruined Junius Seven. The amount of effort that he had put into this endeavor demanded no less than that.

_Anytime now_, he thought, tapping his fingers on the arm of his chair, _The moment of truth cannot come soon enough…_

The preparation and installation of the Flare Motors was not the only matter that the former ZAFT officer and his cohorts had been attending to. Maintaining a renegade force of forty warships was no small task, especially in a hazardous environment such as the orbital Debris Belt. There was also the political side of the endeavor to consider; the Commander and his closest subordinates had only just finished drafting the statement that they planned to release just before the debris entered the atmosphere.

_Some of the others consider it to be an exercise in ego_, he mused, _They're missing the point. It's not enough to deliver judgment; those bastards need to know _who _is casting said judgment and _why_. Only then, when their terror is at its peak, will they be allowed a merciful death. The petty marker left on this mass grave is far too insufficient a tribute to the lives that were lost here. Proper tribute will soon be paid…_

_ Paid in blood._

Feeling the need to occupy himself, he turned to his sensor officer. "Any contacts at our perimeter?"

His subordinate shook his head. "All is quiet, Commander. Should I widen the range of the recon flights?"

"No," said Commander Cortez, "Flights too far afield increase our risk of detection. Continue with our current patrol patterns."

The officer nodded. "Aye, Commander."

"Comms," said the Commander, "are any vessels reporting mechanical issues or damage from the debris?"

"A few minor scrap impacts," the radioman replied, "but nothing that will impede their functionality."

Commander Cortez nodded. "Very well. Carry on."

_Come on_, he thought impatiently, _I've waited long enough for this. We all have…_

Finally he got the message he was hoping for from his communications officer. "Sir, new report from the engineering teams! The last Flare Motor has been securely mounted and primed. Guidance systems are locked in across the network!"

Commander Cortez smiled. "At last…"

"Sir," said the communications officer, "Should we issue the order?"

The Commander nodded. "Set the transmission to broadcast directly from my station; I'll give the order myself."

The radioman nodded, and a moment later a green light appeared on the Commander's personal monitor. "You're live, sir."

Taking a deep breath, the Commander leaned forward to make sure the built-in mic caught the full measure of his voice.

"Attention all forces," he said, his gaze as hard as stone, "The time that we have waited so patiently for has finally come."

"Commence Operation Meteor."

….

Moving through the corridors of the _Minerva_, once again in his casual attire, Heero was surprised to run into Duo, Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei at an intersection on the way to the warship's briefing room.

"Yo, Heero!" said Duo with a smile, "I was wondering when we'd run into you."

"You four were called by the Captain as well," Heero surmised.

Quatre nodded. "Whatever's going on must be pretty big if she's asking us to join her and her pilots for a briefing."

"Either her trust in us has grown," said Trowa, "or this is a matter far too important for her to turn down our aid."

"I guess we'll find out soon enough," said Wufei.

"Couldn't she have called like an hour from now," said Duo, trying and failing to suppress a yawn, "I like being included and all, but I was hoping for a little more time to snooze."

'Day' and 'night' were relatively subjective terms when one was in outer space, but by the clock the Gundam pilots and the _Minerva_ were running on now it was still pretty early in the 'morning' following the battle in the Debris Belt. Heero was in agreement with Duo as far as sleep had gone; he'd spent more time down in the hangar going over Wing Zero Albion and corresponding with Murrue and other members of Terminal through the Gundam's secure communications array, and he definitely wouldn't have minded another hour or so to sleep. Still, he knew that if Captain Gladys was asking for his help it had to be important, otherwise she likely would've kept the matter strictly to the ZAFT crew.

"Can't be helped now," said Quatre, "We should get a move on. They should be starting soon."

"Agreed," said Heero, taking the lead.

A few minutes later the five of them arrived in the briefing room. Captain Gladys and Chairman Durandal were standing in front of the main monitor. Seated in the gallery were Lunamaria, Rey, and Shinn, along with Athrun and Cagalli. Heero noticed Shinn occasionally glare at Orb's Chief Representative, but if Cagalli noticed it she seemed determined not to let it bother her.

_Those two in the same room is a diplomatic incident waiting to happen_, thought Heero, _I'm glad Athrun's sitting between them._

He turned to Captain Gladys, who nodded at him in greeting. "Heero, I appreciate you and your companions coming here on short notice. I'd rather not rely on the aid of outsiders, but your assistance has been critical to us over the past few days, and I fear that we may need your help now more than ever."

"The situation is dire," said Chairman Durandal, "Given your experience in the last war, I'm sure you'll understand why we've summoned you once you've been briefed."

Heero nodded. "We're willing to hear you out. Once we know what's going on, then we'll decide on our next course of action."

Chairman Durandal nodded. "We can ask no more than that."

"Thank you," said the Captain with a smile, "Please, have a seat."

Heero and the others settled in between Cagalli and her bodyguard and the ZAFT pilots. When they were all seated Captain Gladys clicked a button on the small remote she was holding, and the image on the screen shifted to a sight anyone with a passing familiarity with current events in the Cosmic Era would recognize.

_The ruins of Junius Seven_, he thought, warning bells going off in his head, _Something tells me this isn't about the memorial marker there…_

The image was of more than just the wrecked colony. Scattered about on the screen were several warships that Heero knew quite well; _Laurasia_-class frigates. The Gundam pilot instantly put two and two together; they now had a _much _bigger problem to deal with than the escape of Bogey One.

"A little over an hour ago," said Captain Gladys, "We received word from long range scouts that had been searching for signs of Bogey One of a new development; the orbit of the ruins of Junius Seven has begun to decay. According to our preliminary estimates, the debris will fall to Earth sometime on October 8th."

"How is that possible?" asked Cagalli, her eyes wide in shock, "I thought the ruins of Junius Seven were supposed to be in a stable orbit!"

"It's not a natural decay," said Heero firmly.

The ZAFT pilots, Cagalli, and Athrun all looked at him in confusion, but Heero's gaze was focused on Captain Gladys and Chairman Durandal. "The warships pictured with the colony aren't part of the ZAFT fleet, are they?"

"What are you talking about?" asked Shinn, "Those are _Laurasia_-class frigates. Of course they're ZAFT ships!"

"But ZAFT's been phasing them out in favor of adding more _Nazca_-class destroyers and _Hel_-class cruisers to the fleet," Heero replied, "Plenty of _Laurasia_-class frigates still operate with the fleet, but they're typically used in defensive deployments like Armory One's patrol screen and the L5 Home Fleet. These ships are too far out, and there are too many of them to just be long range patrols."

Chairman Durandal nodded. "The vessels pictured here were all decommissioned some time ago, and were meant to be scrapped or sold to civilian contractors and converted for asteroid mining and transport operations. However, they were all stolen over a prolonged period. We've been trying to track them down for a while now, and it appears we've finally found them."

"We believe that these rogue vessels are manned by former soldiers who remain adherents to the ideology of Patrick Zala and his followers who seized power in the PLANTs during the last war," said Captain Gladys grimly, "Their intent appears to drop the remains of Junius Seven onto Earth."

A collective gasp went up from all three ZAFT pilots along with Athrun and Cagalli. There was no such reaction from Heero and the other four Gundam pilots though. Looking at his old friends, the Perfect Soldier shared a knowing nod with them.

_Even in a completely different world_, he thought, _the concept of Operation Meteor holds a draw to some people. I wonder if these renegades are using that name for their plan or another one…_

Chairman Durandal clearly caught on to the reaction of Heero and his friends. "You five don't exactly seem surprised by this."

Heero shook his head. "After the end of the Bloody Valentine War, the followers of Patrick Zala were removed from all positions of real power. Those that still cling to that ideology can no longer rely on the resources of the state to carry out their ambitions. An attempt at an orbital drop like this, while still logistically and technically challenging, is a much more feasible proposition for such a group as opposed to something like GENESIS."

"I be they've been planning this for a long time," said Duo, "All those stolen warships and managing to disrupt the ruins' stable orbit… that's not an overnight job."

"How many ships do they have?" asked Trowa.

"Somewhere between thirty to forty," Captain Gladys replied, "Each frigate can carry six mobile suits, so if they all have full complements then we're looking at anywhere from 180 to 240 machines. Our recon units reported spotting a few upgraded GINNs that appeared to be flying coordinated combat patrols, but we have no idea if that is the only type of mobile suit the renegades have at their disposal."

"How did they manage to disrupt the orbit of the ruins?" asked Quatre.

"The reports indicate that they're using a network of Flare Motors," said Captain Gladys.

"How do those work?" asked Wufei.

"They harness the power of solar wind to move objects along a predetermined course," the Captain replied, "An extensive and properly positioned network of the devices can move just about anything. However, it does take some time for them to really get an object up to speed, especially something on the scale of the ruins of Junius Seven."

"That is our saving grace," said Durandal, "We have a four day window to stop the remains of the colony from hitting the Earth."

"Does ZAFT have a plan?" asked Cagalli.

Captain Gladys nodded. "We're scrambling a task force right now. Engineering teams equipped with heavy industrial drills will land on the ruins of the colony and break it up into smaller pieces. Our warships will bombard them to break them up further, and hopefully anything that falls into the atmosphere will not be large enough to do major damage."

"The renegades won't just sit back and let you carry out this operation," said Heero, "You'll need to punch through their lines and protect the engineering teams while they carry out their tasks."

"I'm sure they'll put up a hard fight," said Captain Gladys grimly, "Only fanatics would go to lengths such as these, and I highly doubt they'll go down easy. Unfortunately they've had two years to plan this operation, whereas our response plan was only created in the last hour. Our task force will be very much an ad hoc formation, and one hastily assembled with the most readily available resources. I expect that we will be outnumbered in this fight, and that is why we must have your aid, Heero."

"You more than proved your ability to handle long odds in the last war," said Durandal with a smile, "and your four friends have likewise shown that their talents and the power of their machines can more than offset a numerical disadvantage. Our foes here may have been planning this operation for years now, but I highly doubt that you five have figured into their calculations."

Duo smirked. "So you want us to be your ace in the hole, huh?"

"Simply put, but adequate," Captain Gladys replied before turning to the three ZAFT pilots, "You three have talent, and I have high hopes for your future growth, but unfortunately you're in way over your heads here. I expect you to cooperate with Heero and the others in the coming mission. Is that understood?"

"Yes ma'am!" said Lunamaria, and Heero saw her spare a quick glance at Wufei.

_Huh_, he thought, _Wufei's not really the type to get someone to seek his attention after just a few days. I wonder what's up with those two…_

"Hold on!" said Shinn, "They haven't agreed to help us, yet!"

"With all due respect, Captain," said Rey, "Shinn is right; we don't have their confirmed support."

"You have mine," said Heero firmly, "but I'll only speak for myself. I told you that the other four are each my equal, and that means that their decision to help you is theirs alone."

"I see," said Captain Gladys, turning to the other four pilots, "I know that we only just met a few days ago, but I humbly ask for your help. Please."

Duo smiled. "No need to worry, ma'am. I'm in."

"As am I," said Trowa.

"Me too," said Quatre with a smile, "I'll do all I can to make sure the mission succeeds."

Wufei nodded. "You'll have my support as well. There's no justice in sitting back and doing nothing while these fanatics try to wipe out all life on Earth."

The Captain smiled. "On behalf of my crew, you have our deepest gratitude."

"What about you, Athrun Zala?" asked Chairman Durandal, "We'll need every skilled pilot we can get for this operation. Your talents would most certainly come in handy here."

Athrun looked at Cagalli, who gave him a smile and a nod. The young man then turned back to the Chairman.

"If you're willing to let me fly for you again," he said, "then I will join your operation."

The Chairman smiled. "Excellent. With all of you on our side I am quite confident of the mission's success."

"It is encouraging," said Captain Gladys, "but let's not pat ourselves on the back just yet. We have a hard fight ahead of us."

"Of course, Talia," the Chairman replied.

The Captain turned back to the assembled pilots. "Given the size of the force we'll be up against, _Minerva _will be moving to join our nearest patrols as swiftly as possible before proceeding to the operation site to support the task force. I want you all to rest up while you can. We'll need you at full strength when the time comes."

The three ZAFT pilots stood as one and saluted. "Yes, ma'am!"

Captain Gladys nodded. "That'll be all for now. Dismissed."

The Captain and the Chairman left the briefing room quickly, but the others stayed behind. After everything that they had just heard, Heero couldn't blame them; it was a lot to take in on such short notice.

As was typical, Duo was the one to break the silence. "Well, I didn't see that one coming."

"You've got that right," said Quatre, "First an attack on Armory One, and now someone's trying to drop the remains of Junius Seven onto Earth… it certainly makes for a lively week."

Heero saw Shinn's eyes widen in shock and indignation. "_Lively?_ One of our colonies was attacked and now a bunch of terrorists are trying to drop the ruins of another onto the planet, and you call that _lively_? What the hell's wrong with you?"

"Calm down," Trowa admonished him, "You're a soldier; freaking out won't help anyone here."

"He's right, Shinn," said Rey, putting his hand on his shoulder, "You need to keep a cool head."

Shinn sighed. "You're right. Still… how can you guys be so calm about this?"

"Because we're experienced," Wufei replied, "Earth-threatening crises aren't exactly new to us."

"So," said Lunamaria, "what does it take to ruffle your feathers then? If an impending colony drop doesn't do that, I'd hate to think of what would."

Wufei folded his arms. "If you think we're going to divulge information like that then you're more naïve then I thought."

Lunamaria glared at him. "You don't have to be like that, you know."

Duo chuckled. "Don't mind him. Wufei's got no problem being a pain in the ass when he wants to."

"I could say the same for you," Wufei shot back.

"At least I know how to pull the stick out of my ass," said Duo with a smirk, "You need to do the same. Then again, if you did you'd probably just start beating guys to death with it."

Heero saw Cagalli shook her head in disgust. "Ugh… boys."

Athrun smiled. "At least they're entertaining."

Cagalli laughed. "True."

"Are you sure about sticking around, Athrun?" asked Heero, "Your primary responsibility is the protections of Cagalli. I'm sure the Chairman could arrange to have you two transferred off the _Minerva _before the operation starts."

Athrun shook his head, and Heero saw a haunted look in his eyes. "No. The people that are trying to do this… they're following my father's ideology. It wasn't enough that we stopped him in the last war. His ideals, his legacy, still survive, even if they don't have as many followers as they once did. I… I _have _to fight them."

"Athrun…" said Cagalli softly, putting her hand on his shoulder.

"Your father's sins aren't yours, Athrun," said Heero firmly, "You bear no responsibility for his legacy."

Athrun gave a rueful chuckle. "You really think that, Heero? I'm his _son_. After mother died I was the only immediate family he had. I should've recognized the path he'd started going down sooner. I could've stopped him if I had, and who knows who many lives could've been saved?"

"That's not a weight you need to bear, Athrun," said Cagalli, "If you're going to fight these people, don't do it because of your father's legacy. Do it for the people that they're trying to kill."

"You can't change the past," said Duo, "and you shouldn't let your old man define your future. He's dead and you're still standing. Leave him in his grave and make your own path. Fight for your future and the people you care about, not because you think you have to take care of his legacy."

Trowa smirked. "That's unusually eloquent for you, Duo."

Quatre smiled. "I'm impressed. I didn't know you had it in you."

Wufei chuckled. "I still don't think he does. He's just pulling it out of his ass."

Duo folded his arms. "You're just hating on it because you couldn't come up with it yourself, Wufei."

"Why would I need to?" Wufei replied, "I couldn't care less about the sins of Athrun's father. The only thing that matters to me is the coming battle."

"If you're going to fight, we won't stop you," said Heero, meeting Athrun's gaze, "Captain Gladys was right; we need every skilled pilot we can get. I've got your back, just like in the last war. Still, make sure that you're doing this for the right reasons. If you go into this fight carrying misguided guilt, you won't survive."

Athrun nodded. "I'll keep that in mind. Thanks, Heero."

Heero then turned to the ZAFT pilots in the room. "Are you three up for this? Armory One and the Debris Belt will be a picnic compared to what's coming."

Shinn nodded and glared at him. "Don't underestimate us just because we don't have the same level of experience that you do. We're ready!"

"Shinn's right," said Rey, "We're soldiers of ZAFT. When the time comes, we will do our duty."

Lunamaria smiled. "We'll fight alongside you and stop these guys. We can do this!"

Wufei chuckled. "Well, at least you've got spirit."

"I've got more than that!" the red-head replied, "I'll show you!"

"Save that spirit for the fight," said Heero as he headed for the exit, "You're going to need it."

"Hey!" said Shinn, "Where are you going?"

"The enemy and your Chairman are moving their chess pieces," he said without looking back, "I'm going to move _mine_."

_Before it's too late_, he silently added, _Murrue… please be ready!_

….

Leaning back in her seat on the _Archangel_'s bridge, Murrue took a deep breath as she absorbed everything that Heero had told her.

_Of all the possible twists we could encounter_, she thought, _I never anticipated this one…_

It was fortunate her formidable warship was now in orbit and concealed within the Debris Belt. With the way events were unfolding, Murrue knew that swift action would be crucial to resolving this new crisis.

When she spoke again her eyes met Heero's on the main monitor, and she could see the grim look in them. "So it wasn't enough that we have to contend with an Alliance black ops force. Now the remnants of the Zala regime are making a move… and one right out of your old world's playbook to boot."

Heero nodded. "Yes, though with some key differences. The original Operation Meteor revolved around disrupting the rotation of a fully functional colony and knocking it out of orbit. After the impact, the five Gundams would descend to Earth and achieve dominance in the chaos. Of course, we sabotaged that plan. Here the radicals are taking the remnants of Junius Seven and using them to try to wipe out all life on Earth; I highly doubt that global conquest is on their agenda."

"And they're using Flare Motors to pull it off," said Murrue bitterly, "How ironic. Those devices were originally developed to be used on asteroids that were in danger of impacting the Earth in order to alter their courses and avert Armageddon. Now the radicals are employing them to bring about that exact kind of cataclysm, only with the ruins of a nuked colony rather than a meteor."

"At least that gives us some time," said Heero, determination clear in his voice, "We've got a chance to stop them, Murrue."

Murrue nodded. "How do you want to play this?"

"I know the _Archangel_ and the _Dominion _are capable of reaching the ruins before ZAFT's task force," said Heero, "However, with the size of the force our enemy is employing here, it would be best if we made our move in conjunction with the _Minerva _and the other ZAFT units."

"Agreed," Murrue replied, "ZAFT's plan to break up the remains of the colony is sound, and if we add our firepower to the mix we can make sure that nothing large enough to pose a threat is able to fall to Earth."

"Yes," said Heero, "We may have the power to destroy the remains ourselves, but if we fired on them when they were in one piece there's still too great a chance that portions of the debris with substantial enough mass to pose serious harm could still impact the planet. By co-opting ZAFT's plan we can minimize the risk providing we act with careful timing."

"That does mean we won't be able to launch our attack until October 8th though," said Murrue nervously, "That's the same day the ruins are projected to make their final descent. Things are going to be tight here, Heero."

Heero sighed. "I know, Murrue. Believe me, if you've got another plan, I'm all ears."

Murrue shook her head. "I wish I did, but I think this is the only shot we've got."

"Is the _Archangel_'s crew ready?" he asked.

Murrue smiled. "Of course, Heero. It's not what we were anticipating, but you know how adaptable we are."

Heero nodded and gave her a small smile in return. "That I do. Get in touch with Natarle as fast as you can. We need to move quickly if we're going be in position when the time comes."

Murrue nodded. "Will do. Before that, though, I've got some people here who'd like to say hello."

She looked to her right and motioned for Kira and Lacus to come forward. As they both came into Heero's line of sight they smiled at him.

"Hey, Heero!" said Kira.

"It's good to see you again, Heero!" said Lacus, "Although I wish it were under better circumstances."

Heero nodded. "Same here. I'm glad you're both here. We'll definitely need your help on this one."

Kira nodded. "We weren't planning on fighting the remnants of the Zala regime, but no matter who we're up against we won't let them threaten the Earth and the peace that we fought for."

"Yes," said Lacus, a look of fierce determination in her usually peaceful cerulean eyes, "We will do everything in our power to thwart this awful scheme."

"I appreciate that," said Heero, "Kira… are you sure you're ready to be back on the battlefield?"

Kira nodded again, an unusually grim look in his eyes. "I am, Heero. It's not what I wanted, but this is too important for me to sit it out."

"As long as it's your decision," said Heero, "It'll be good to have you on the field with us."

"The Freedom's almost as iconic as Wing Zero," Murrue cut in, "Are you sure ZAFT won't raise any issues with it?"

"I doubt they'll try to go after Kira or any of us in the middle of a fight when the stakes are this high," Heero replied, "Although… if these are fanatics from the old regime that we're up against, I have to wonder how seeing one of the famous stolen nuclear prototypes on the battlefield against them will play out. It might decrease their morale… or just make them angrier than they already are."

"You could say the same thing for Wing Zero, though," said Lacus, "Kira may have defeated Creuset in the final battle, but _you _were the one that broke through Patrick Zala's final line of defense and destroyed GENESIS."

"There's also the _Archangel_'s reputation among the old regime to consider," said Murrue, "Frankly, any of us just showing up on the same battlefield as them is going to have consequences, both intended and otherwise."

"We'll deal with that when the time comes," said Heero, "We all knew what we signed up for when we formed Terminal. Our duty is the protection of the Earth Sphere as a whole. We'll worry about the fallout from our actions after we've averted the apocalypse."

Murrue smiled. "Well said, Heero."

"Indeed," said Lacus.

"We'll get it done, Heero," said Kira, "and after that we'll figure out who was behind the attack on Armory One."

Heero nodded before turning to Murrue. "Give Natarle and the others on the _Dominion _my regards."

"Will do," Murrue replied, "We'll see you soon, Heero."

"And not just you," said Lacus, "I must say, I'm very much looking forward to meeting your fellow Gundam pilots."

Kira smiled. "Yeah, same here. It should be interesting."

Heero smirked. "Yes, I'm sure it will. I'll see you all soon. Murrue… thank you."

Murrue shook her head and smiled again. "You don't have to thank me, Heero. We're well past that point in our relationship, aren't we?"

Heero nodded and returned her smile. "You're right, Murrue. I love you."

"And I love you," she replied, "Take care, Heero."

"You as well," he said, "Heero, out."

Knowing that they had no time to lose, Murrue turned to the blue-eyed, red-haired seventeen-year old woman at the communications console.

"Get a secure communications link set up with the _Dominion_ immediately," said Murrue, "We need to update Natarle and the others right away."

Flay Allster, communications officer of the _Archangel_, nodded and smiled.

"Aye, Captain!"

….

Sitting in the Captain's chair on the bridge of the former Earth Alliance battleship _Dominion_, Natarle's purple eyes were narrowed in concentration as she listened to Murrue's report. Now twenty-seven years old, apart from growing out her black hair a little bit the former Atlantic Federation officer had changed very little since the Bloody Valentine War, at least as far as personal appearance was concerned. She maintained a slim and athletic figure that her Orb military uniform did very little to hide and it was something that her lover was always quite ready to compliment her on.

Said lover was floating less than a meter to the right of her chair, listening intently as the woman who had once been their direct superior two years ago update them on the situation. His arms folded and his usual carefree smirk replaced by a grim expression, Mu La Flaga still looked every bit the dashing ace pilot that Natarle had fallen in love with during the last war. The thirty-year old combat veteran had grown his blond hair out a bit, but his blue eyes still held that devil-may-care light that was his hallmark, and his Orb uniform did not detract from his fit figure.

When Murrue finished briefing them, Natarle sighed. "Well… I wasn't planning on _this _when you had us deploy from L3."

"No kidding," said La Flaga, "I thought the surviving radicals were nothing more than a battered remnant with no real power."

"They may be battered," Murrue replied grimly, "but they still had enough power to put together a fleet of forty ships and to attempt a colony drop. Whether we want to believe it or not, this is where we stand."

"I wonder how much help they had from within the PLANT government," said Natarle, "Even if the ships they stole were decommissioned and slated for scrapping, I find it hard to believe that they would've been completely unguarded."

"Yeah," said La Flaga, "and even if they stole older warships and mobile suits, I'm willing to bet that these guys make up for that with experience. I'm not sure if the task force ZAFT's scrambling to counter them will be enough. They may have better ships and mobile suits, but they've also got a lot of green personnel."

Murrue nodded. "The Gundam pilots and the rest of us will have to make up for the lack of experience from the new ZAFT forces."

"We'll definitely have them beat there," said Natarle with a smirk, "Not to mention a serious technological advantage."

"You got that right," said La Flaga with a smile, "We may not have numbers, but boy do we have firepower. And now the other four Gundam pilots as well… I wonder if the Cosmic Era will be able to survive that."

"Who knows?" said Natarle, "It barely survived Heero."

Murrue smiled. "We're fortunate that they arrived when they did. The appearance of four mobile suits similar to Wing Zero may increase tensions, but given what's at stake here we desperately need the power of the Gundams and the skills of their pilots. There's no way that the radicals could've planned for them."

"I almost feel sorry for them," said La Flaga with a chuckle, "_Almost_."

Natarle shook her head. "Patrick Zala would be rolling in his grave if he knew just who was flying against his faction's remnant."

"I imagine the same would be true for Azrael, at least as far as these Alliance black ops forces are concerned," said Murrue, "Being confronted with those four machines and the Wing Zero Albion had to have been a serious blow to their morale in addition to the casualties they took."

"It'd be even worse for them if they knew just who was flying those four machines," said La Flaga, smirking, "Four pilots on the same level as him... I'm still having trouble believing that."

"It'll be interesting to see them in action," said Natarle, "I just hope that they're ready for what's coming."

Murrue smiled. "If anyone can handle a fight like this, it's the Gundam pilots. Of course, we won't be letting them do all the work."

Natarle nodded. "Copy that. So, how should we play this?"

"Timing will be critical," said Murrue, "It'll be best to make ourselves known after the ZAFT force has engaged the radicals. We can hit the enemy with maximum surprise, and by that point ZAFT will be far too occupied to do anything about us if they don't appreciate our help."

"Sounds like we've got our bases covered," said La Flaga.

"Almost," said Natarle, "Murrue, how should we deploy the battleships?"

"That'll depend on how the radicals have their forces arrayed," Murrue replied, "I'd like to do a pincer attack, but we may have to alter that plan. Much of this is also dependent on how ZAFT opens up the fight. Heero should be able to keep us up to date on their movements though. We can use his intel to make last minute adjustments before we engage."

"And we're still having the _Kusanagi_ and _Eternal _sit this one out?" asked La Flaga.

Murrue nodded. "If the _Kusanagi _scrambles without a direct order from Cagalli it'll make her situation even more difficult. As for the _Eternal_, her hideaway is pretty far out, and Heero still wants to keep her as an ace in the hole for future developments."

"The improved firepower of our two battleships should more than make up for their absence," said Natarle.

"Agreed," said Murrue, "Not to mention the new mobile suits we have."

La Flaga smiled. "No kidding. I really wish we had those things on our side in the last war. Especially the Valkyrie's new machine. Whew… talk about one wicked mobile suit."

"Perhaps," said Murrue, "You two already know my concerns about that thing, so I won't reiterate them. Heero says Shemei's ready to use it for real now, and I trust his judgment."

"He's not wrong," said Natarle with a smile, "I've been observing her exercises. She's all set, Murrue."

Murrue nodded. "Very well. I'll see you both soon enough. _Archangel_, out."

As Murrue disappeared from the screen, Natarle turned to La Flaga. "Well… here we go again."

La Flaga chuckled. "You mean us charging off to face long odds with impossibly high stakes riding on the outcome?"

"What else would I mean?" said Natarle dryly, "It's more or less in our job description."

La Flaga nodded. "True enough. Saving the world from fanatics and maniacs… try putting that on a résumé."

"It would certainly be an interesting one to read," Natarle replied with a smile, "At least we're getting some help from others who have experience in this sort of thing."

"Always nice to be working with fellow professionals who specialize in insane missions," said La Flaga, "Fighting alongside all five Gundam pilots… now _that's _going to be a battle to remember."

"You mean we don't have our share of those already?" asked Natarle.

La Flaga smiled. "Good point."

Natarle sighed. "Seriously, Mu… are you ready for this?"

Her lover nodded. "You bet. Tallgeese III's in peak condition, and so am I. Sure, this isn't the fight we were planning on, and it's definitely winner-take-all, but we've got this, Natarle. Don't doubt that for a minute."

_I always wonder where you get that confidence from_, she thought as she looked at him with a smile, _No matter what the odds or the stakes, you're always ready to jump right into the mess. That's just one of the reasons I fell for you…_

"All right," she said, "In that case, I'd say it's time for the _Dominion _to get back onto the world stage."

"Got that right," said La Flaga, "Her and the _Archangel_… and they're far more powerful than they were before. Our enemies have no idea what's coming their way."

Natarle nodded, her confidence growing. "We beat the extremists of both factions when they were at the height of their power two years ago. Let's go find the trash they left behind and take it out."

La Flaga grinned. "Copy that, Natarle."

….

**October 8****th****, C.E. 73**

_I shouldn't be here_, Meyrin thought as she nervously looked back and forth, _I really should be heading to the bridge._

Her shift hadn't started yet, so it wasn't like she was breaking any rules by coming down to the hangar. However, Meyrin was aware that she would need to get to her station soon, and making it there on time from down in the hangar would be tricky.

Still, she had been unable to stop herself from coming down here. The _Minerva _would soon be taking part in an operation unlike any that Meyrin had ever imagined that she would be involved in. She knew how high the stakes were, what the cost of failure would be, and she was scared. She'd barely slept the night before, and sometimes it was all she could do to keep her hands from shaking.

That was why she'd come down here, looking for Duo. He always seemed so relaxed and confident, regardless of the situation, and Meyrin needed some of that right now. She'd only known him for a few days, but she knew that he was the person that she wanted to see right now. If anyone could help her calm her nerves, it was him.

There he was, floating in front of his Gundam. His arms were folded and he was looking up at his machine. There was a smirk on his face, as if he and his mobile suit had just shared a private joke. The atmosphere of the hangar was tense as the ZAFT crews prepped the _Minerva_'s mobile suits for battle, but Duo looked completely unfazed by it.

_I wish I could be like that_, she thought, _So at ease, so cool. How in the world does he do it?_

She took a deep breath and moved forward. It didn't take the Gundam pilot long to notice her; despite how relaxed he looked, his senses were very sharp.

He turned to her and smiled as she approached. "Hey, what's up? I thought you'd be on the bridge right now."

Meyrin shook her head. "I've got a little bit of time before my shift starts. I… I wanted to see you."

Duo raised an eyebrow. "Really? What for?"

"I…" she said, fidgeting, "Well… promise you won't tell anyone?"

Duo nodded. "Sure thing. You okay?"

Meyrin sighed. "No, not really."

"Ah," said Duo, "Nerves, right?"

Her eyes widened. "How did you know?"

"It's obvious on you," he said, "You're not hiding it very well."

Meyrin flushed with embarrassment. "Oh no…"

"Hey," said Duo as he put a hand on her shoulder, "There's nothing wrong with being scared before a fight."

She looked up at him, her heartbeat quickening. "Really?"

"Oh, yeah," said Duo casually, "I'd be worried about you if you _weren't _nervous. Anyone who isn't at least a bit afraid before a battle is a damn idiot. If you're scared, it means you're smart. You appreciate what you're flying into, and you'll be better prepared to deal with it."

"How do you know?" she asked, "What if… what if I freeze up? What if I make a mistake and let everyone down?"

Duo smiled. "You won't. I may not know you well, but you've got a good head on your shoulders. Just stay calm and trust your friends. Follow your training. Focus on your role and you'll do fine."

Meyrin returned the smile. "You make it sound so easy."

"Hey," he said, "You haven't choked in the last two fights, have you?"

Meyrin shook her head. "No."

"Good," said Duo, "You did fine with those, and I see no reason to think that you won't do fine here. You got this, kid."

Meyrin nodded, and while she was still nervous she could feel herself becoming noticeably calmer. This was exactly why she had come down here. Duo had helped her settle down enough to focus on her job.

"Okay," she said, "I should get going. If there's a god, I hope he's got our back."

Duo chuckled as he looked at Deathscythe Omega. "There is only one god, and his name is Death. And there is only one thing we say to the God of Death."

"What's that?" asked Meyrin.

Duo turned to her and grinned. "_Not today_."

….

Zipping up her crimson pilot's suit, Lunamaria looked over at her two friends. Rey looked as calm as usual as he changed into his pilot suit, but Shinn looked agitated. Normally Lunamaria would've chalked it up to nerves; this was a high-stakes operation, after all. However, it could sometimes be hard to tell _what _was bugging Shinn; it was all too easy for something to get under his skin.

Athrun Zala was with them as well, and he had a strange look on his face. He didn't really seem nervous, but there was definitely something on his mind. Lunamaria wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that they were about to fight people who subscribed to the same ideology as his late father had.

There was a tense silence in the pilots' locker room, and Lunamaria decided she had to be the one to break it. "You guys ready for this?"

"Yes," Rey replied coolly.

Athrun nodded but didn't say anything, while Shinn looked like he hadn't heard her at all.

"Hey," said Lunamaria, "Earth to Shinn! What's up?"

Shinn looked surprised as he turned to Lunamaria. "Sorry… I kinda spaced out there."

"You doing okay?" she asked.

Shinn nodded. "I'm fine. I just want to stop these guys before they can hurt anyone."

"So do the rest of us," said Lunamaria.

"We will," said Athrun calmly, "You're flying with the best pilots in the Earth Sphere. The enemy won't succeed."

"The Gundam pilots are formidable," said Rey, "but even they can't stop a falling colony without help."

"Which is why they're fighting with us," said Athrun, "This won't be like the last two battles. You'll be up against veterans of my father's regime. They all survived the Bloody Valentine War. They won't be easy pickings. Having Heero and the others with us will help level the playing field."

"Are you saying we couldn't win without Heero's help?" asked Shinn, "We're ZAFT Reds. We're the best in the fleet!"

"The best in the fleet with only two battles on your belt," Athrun replied, "The guys you're about to fight against survived entire campaigns. Take the help of experienced pilots when you can get it. Trust me, you'll need it."

"And I suppose that goes for you as well?" said Rey, his eyes narrowing, "You survived the last war too, after all. However, since these are people that once served your father, will you really be able to go all out in this fight?"

"I fought my father's soldiers in the last war," said Athrun forcefully, "I can fight these people too."

Lunamaria thought that both Athrun and Rey had good points. Athrun had proven that he was able to fight against his father's regime in the last war, but Rey was also right in his concerns as to whether or not Athrun would be able to fight at his best today. The son of the late Chairman seemed to be somewhat distracted.

She saw Rey shrug. "Whatever you say."

"Come on," said Shinn, "Let's get to our mobile suits."

Lunamaria nodded, and the four pilots made for the exits. As they left the pilot's locker room Shinn split off from the group; Impulse would launch from its own dedicated catapult, so Shinn's mobile suit was kept in a separate part of the hangar.

Making her way through the hangar, Lunamaria found herself looking for Wufei. She didn't know why; now was hardly the time to be getting into another argument with him. However, a part of her did want to see him before the fighting started.

It wasn't too hard to find him; she could see him floating in front of the Gundam Altron Custom… or Nataku; Lunamaria still wasn't sure what she was supposed to call it since Wufei hadn't bothered to explain the second name to her. It did seem to hold some special significance to him though.

_Maybe I should look it up when I get a chance_, she thought, _There might be something on the net about it. Maybe it's from history or his culture's folklore or something…_

She split off from Athrun and Rey. The two pilots looked at her for a moment before moving on to their own mobile suits while Lunamaria headed over to Wufei.

She waved and smiled at him as she approached, hoping she looked more confident than she felt. "Hey, Wufei!

He looked over at her and nodded. "Lunamaria. What brings you over here?"

"Well," she said, trying to think of a good excuse, "I figured I'd see if you had any useful advice for the coming fight. I mean, this isn't like anything I've ever flown into before."

The Chinese pilot looked at his Gundam for a moment before turning back to her. "What are you fighting for?"

Lunamaria was caught off guard by the question. "What do you mean, 'what am I fighting for?'"

"I mean exactly that," said Wufei, "What are your reasons for fighting here today?"

Lunamaria took a deep breath. "To protect peace in the Earth Sphere."

"If we're fighting then wouldn't you say that peace has already gone out the window?" he deadpanned.

"You know what I mean," Lunamaria shot back, "Yes, we'll be fighting a battle, but we can still stop this from turning into a full scale war."

"Perhaps," said Wufei, "but that remains to be seen. More to the point, that answer's not good enough."

Lunamaria folded her arms. "What do you mean, _not good enough_?"

"It's too impersonal," Wufei replied, "Peace in the Earth Sphere is an abstract concept. It's a nice thing to put on a banner or in a speech, but in my experience people tend to fight for things that are much closer to their hearts. The same goes for you; don't bother to deny it."

She wanted to do so just to spite him, but she realized that he actually had a point. Lunamaria wasn't being true to herself with the reason she had stated; she was just saying what she thought she was supposed to.

"All right, then," she said, meeting her gaze, "I'm fighting to prevent billions of people from getting slaughtered by fanatics who should've died in the last war. I'm fighting because my sister is on this ship, and I'm going to protect her along with everyone else on it. I'm fighting because Shinn and Rey, my _friends_, are also fighting in this battle, and I want to do all I can to help them make it out alive. I'm fighting because _it's the right thing to do_. There, how's that?"

He looked at her for a moment, and Lunamaria would've given every bit of money in her savings to know what was going through his mind right now. It was only for a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity had passed before he finally gave her an approving nod.

"That's better," he said, "Those are _real _reasons. They _matter _to you far more than the platitudes and politics you were fed at your academy. Those mean more to you than the words of politicians ever could."

Lunamaria nodded. "That's right. So, how does that help me here?"

"They're what're driving you," said Wufei, "It's the motivation that you need to focus on. Those are _your _stakes in this fight. Use them to push yourself to accomplish your mission, and you'll make it through this."

"All right," said Lunamaria, "I'll keep that in mind. Thanks."

Wufei shook his head. "Don't mention it."

Not knowing what else to do, Lunamaria held out her hand. "Hey, Wufei? Be careful, okay? I'm still going to prove myself to you, and you need to stay alive so I can do that."

Wufei raised an eyebrow; he seemed almost amused by her statement. Lunamaria thought he'd simply shrug off her words, but he surprised her by taking her hand.

"Fine," he said, "but you'd better do the same. I can't show you how a real warrior fights if you're dead."

Lunamaria smiled. "Got it."

….

From her seat on the bridge of the _Minerva_, Talia watched with relief as the shuttle carrying Durandal entered a nearby _Nazca_-class destroyer.

_He'll be taken back to the PLANTs_, she thought, _He'll be safe in the capital, and that's where he belongs as Chairman… although it was good to see him again._

While her nation's leader was no longer on the battleship, another nation's was. Lady Cagalli was now in the seat that Durandal had once occupied; she had been determined to stay on the _Minerva _while Athrun Zala was fighting for it. Talia had protested the young ruler's decision, but Lady Cagalli had been adamant in her resolve. Privately, Talia admired the girl's strength of will, although her remaining on the _Minerva _did up the pressure on the Captain to perform well and guide her ship through the coming battle.

Glancing towards the back of the bridge, Talia's eyes narrowed as she saw the independent journalist Marilyn Peterson in her spot as well, studying the bridge intently. Marilyn had insisted on remaining with the ship as well; her desire to observe the coming battle was quite strong. Surprisingly, Lady Cagalli had also asked Talia that Marilyn be allowed to stay on the ship, and eventually the Captain had relented.

_At least they'll both be going the same place after the battle_, she thought, _Since Marilyn is also from Orb I can drop her off along with Lady Cagalli at the end of the operation. Carpentaria's not too far from there, so we can go to that base after we've returned them both safely home._

The destroyer carrying the Chairman would be underway soon enough, but that still left two other vessels of the same class to accompany the _Minerva _as she raced to catch up with the rest of Task Force Aurora, the battle group assigned to what had been titled Operation Redemption. It was a fitting name for the mission as far as Talia was concerned; the people who were trying to drop the remains of Junius Seven onto Earth were fellow Coordinators, and it was only through stopping them that Talia and her comrades could redeem their government of the sin of letting them gather enough power to pose such a threat in the first place.

Including the _Minerva _and the two _Nazca_-class destroyers that would be following her to catch up with the main group, Task Force Aurora was composed of twenty-three ships. Aside from the _Minerva _and the _Hel_-class cruiser _Freya _that was leading the main force, the battle group was made up entirely of _Nazca_-class destroyers. Their mobile suits were a mix of GuAIZ Rs and the newer ZAKU and ZAKU Phantom units, and while they were technologically superior to the enemies that they would be fighting against that did not change the fact that they would be outnumbered nearly two-to-one. To make matters worse, Talia was well aware that the ZAFT forces would be split between driving through the enemy's formation and safeguarding the engineering teams with the breaker drills.

_We need more ships for an operation like this_, she thought, _I know that Task Force Aurora was put together hastily, but still… could we not commit more? This is the Earth itself that is at stake here! It may not be the home of the Coordinator people, but it's still the cradle of humanity!_

Talia sighed. She was only a Captain; she did not sit on the Defense Council and had no power over how warships were assigned. She could only hope that her superiors knew what they were doing… and that the aid of the Gundam pilots would be enough to make up for Task Force Aurora's shortcomings.

"Captain," said Meyrin, "the _Dirac _confirms that the Chairman's shuttle is secured. They're getting underway now."

Talia nodded. "Any updates from the _Freya _or the Defense Council?"

"The _Freya _and the main body of Task Force Aurora are moving forward to engage," said Meyrin.

"Damn it," Talia growled, "Commander Roussin was supposed to wait until we linked up with him!"

"Looks like he decided he couldn't remain on standby," said Arthur.

Talia's eyes narrowed. "Helm, all ahead full. Get us to the engagement zone as quickly as possible!"

The helmsman nodded. "Aye, Captain!"

"Meyrin," said Talia, "contact the Gundam pilots. See if they're willing to launch early."

"Ma'am?" said Meyrin.

"Their mobile suits are nuclear powered," said Talia, "They have greater range than the Impulse or the ZAKUs, and they're faster. They can aid the main force until we catch up."

Meyrin nodded. "Aye, Captain!"

_Here we go…_

….

Her mid-length black hair matted to her brow with sweat and her green eyes narrowed in concentration, the seventeen-year old ZAFT pilot Allison Reynolds was flying headlong into the first battle of her career. Her green pilot's suit matched the color of her ZAKU Warrior, which was equipped with a Gunner pack, and she knew that it was a fitting color for her given her rookie status.

_Keep it together_, she thought, _Focus on your training, your comrades, and the mission. You can do this!_

At least, the native of Junius Two _hoped _that she could do this. Her older brother had been a mobile suit pilot in the last war, but he had died in battle. Allison had joined ZAFT after the war to honor his memory… even though her brother had died fighting for the renegade Clyne faction. No, it was _because _he had died in the service of Lacus Clyne that Allison had volunteered. ZAFT was different now; it was a force that could fight for the ideals of the songstress of peace, not for the beliefs of a genocidal madman. Allison knew that her brother would've fought against the radicals that were trying to drop the ruins of Junius Seven onto Earth, and she could do no less now.

_This one's for you, Oliver_, she thought, _Wherever you are now, wish me luck… and put in a good word for me in case this goes south._

She had just launched from the destroyer _Amundsen_, and was bringing up the rear of that vessel's mobile suit formation. All six of the ship's mobile suits were ZAKUs, with the flight lead piloting a ZAKU Phantom with a Blaze pack while Allison and the other four pilots flew ZAKU Warriors. Two more had Blaze packs and two had Slash packs; Allison was the only one with the Gunner pack. She was the long-range muscle in the group, and while her simulator skills were solid she knew that there was a big difference between practice targets and the real deal.

Her team was moving up front to act as part of the vanguard. The mobile suit squads of Task Force Aurora were split into two groups, with roughly half serving as the forward assault force while the other half were bringing forward the large breaker drills that would be needed to split up the ruins of the colony into smaller pieces. Most of the ZAKUs were with the forward units, while GuAIZ Rs made up the bulk of the machines handling and guarding the breaker drills. Allison could understand the deployment, but she had her misgivings. ZAFT was already flying into this fight outnumbered, but the way their forces were set up meant that they would essentially be cutting their mobile suit striking power in half.

Behind the ZAFT mobile suits, the nineteen _Nazca_-class destroyers and the _Hel_-class cruiser _Freya _were spread out and moving forward, with the larger black warship at the center of the formation. Allison knew that the new battleship _Minerva _and two more destroyers were moving to join the rest of Task Force Aurora, and she could only hope that they arrived sooner rather than later.

Out ahead, Allison could see the frigates of the renegades arrayed to screen the ruins of the colony. Most of the forty green warships were set up in front of Task Force Aurora, although a handful of the vessels were spread out around the rest of Junius Seven in order to buy time in case an attack came from another direction.

"Heads up everyone!" said Peter Hall, her flight team lead, "They're launching mobile suits!"

Focusing on the forward enemy warships, Allison could see the telltale blue flares of mobile suit thrusters. Concentrating her sensors on the individual machines, she was able to identify them as modified ZGMF-1017M2 GINN High Maneuver Type IIs. Purple and black mobile suits using the same basic frame as the original ZGMF-1017 GINN, the big difference between the two units was that the High Maneuver Type II had additional and more powerful thrusters to improve flight performance. The units wielded MMI-M636K beam carbines for ranged combat, but rather than having a metal sword for short range fighting these units were actually equipped with beam sabers.

_Looks like the renegades did some retrofitting_, she thought, _Those might be older model units, but their weapons are modern and deadly. This won't be easy._

"Okay, people, this is it!" said Hall, "Blaze and Slash units, up front! Allison, back us up with that cannon of yours!"

Allison nodded, her M1500 Orthros high-energy long range beam cannon already raised and looking for targets. "Got it, sir!"

Ahead of her she could see the ZAKUs with the Blaze packs igniting their beam tomahawks, raising their rifles, and readying their missile launchers. The Slash units had likewise activated their beam axes, and their beam gatling guns were ready to rip into any hostile that got in range of them. Across the forward ranks of Task Force Aurora the other front attack teams were mirroring Allison's, and to the rear she knew that the warships would be sighting in on the renegade vessels.

Over the task force-wide tactical channel came the voice of Commander Armand Roussin, head of Task Force Aurora. "Forward assault teams, engage at will! Punch a hole in the enemy's ranks for the drill teams. All warships, pick targets and fire at will!"

On Allison's sensors she could see a series of red lines appear; the firing lanes for her side's warships. Making sure that she wasn't caught in any of them, she proceeded to lock in on her first target and opened fire.

A blast of crimson energy flew across space; hers was the first shot of the battle. Much to her disappointment, though, her target was able to evade the blast. Allison guessed that the renegades had upgraded the sensors on their mobile suits to improve their effective range and resolution; she had done a textbook job of sighting in on her target, so to her that was the only thing that could explain how her shot had been dodged.

_Damn it_, she thought, _I can't miss again!_

She didn't have time to worry about her failure; the rest of the mobile suits had opened fire mere moments after she had. Space lit up with a lethal light show of particle beams, missiles, and explosions from the inevitable impacts. Allison went into a wild series of evasive maneuvers to keep from getting hit, and whether it was by luck or skill she managed to survive the opening barrage. Others were not so fortunate; Allison could see strings of small explosions going through the ranks of both sides.

Then the capital ships on both sides made their first salvos. Now the beams and missiles crisscrossing space were on a larger scale, and any mobile suits unfortunate enough to get in their way were ripped apart regardless of allegiance. The battle for the fate of the world was now truly underway, and Allison had found herself caught right in the center of it. It would be nothing short of a miracle if she survived it.

She shook her head and focused on acquiring her next target. It didn't take long; there were plenty of the modified GINNs flying around to choose from. She saw one heading right for her flight lead, and she opened fire with her heavy rifle almost on instinct alone. This time her shot found its mark, and the GINN was blown apart.

"Nice save, Allison!" said Hall as he shot down another GINN with his beam rifle.

Allison nodded and smiled. "Anytime, sir!"

She didn't have time to celebrate; with the enemy upon them, a second's distraction could very easily mean death. Allison focused on trying to maintain some distance between herself and the renegades, continuing to provide long-range support while her comrades engaged the enemy at mid and close-range. It was much harder to do than it sounded; the modified GINNs were swift despite being older models, and their pilots were handling them with considerable skill.

Allison fired two more blasts with her rifle, but both shots failed to find their mark. All they seemed to do was draw the attention of other modified GINNs towards her, and she found herself frantically trying to either evade their shots or block them on her ZAKU's shield. One looked like it was about to get into beam saber range of her when it was shredded by a hail of small emerald particle beams.

A male voice came over her squad's tactical channel. "You okay, Allison?"

She nodded. "Thanks, Tom!"

"You got it," replied the pilot of the Slash ZAKU that had just bailed her out.

Relief turned to fear as she saw two more modified GINNs quickly approaching her comrade. "Tom, look out!"

She trained her rifle on the lead machine and fired. The enemy machine managed to evade the shot, but it did give her teammate a chance to ready himself for the new foes. Tom cut loose with his beam gatlings, and more tiny emerald particle beams filled the space between him and the modified GINNs. However, like Allison before him, Tom's shots did not find their mark; the two enemy mobile suits had immediately split up and were coming at him in a pincer attack.

Tom faced one of the mobile suits head on while Allison took a shot at the second machine. This time Allison's crimson blast of energy hit its target dead center and the modified GINN was blown apart. However, Tom did not fare so well against his foe. He took a swing with his beam axe, but the pilot of the modified GINN expertly blocked the attack before swiftly pulling back and then nailing the Slash ZAKU Warrior in the cockpit with a quick beam carbine shot.

Allison's eyes widened in shock and horror as her comrade's mobile suit exploded. "No! _Tom!_"

The modified GINN then turned on her, but before it could make a move another green ZAKU Warrior, this one with a Blaze pack, hacked into it from behind with its beam tomahawk and ripped it apart.

"Allison, focus!" came the male voice of another one of her teammates; the pilot of the Blaze ZAKU that had just helped her.

She nodded. "Right. Thanks, Fred."

Allison's team wasn't the only one that had taken losses. The renegades were proving more than capable of being a threat despite their outdated mobile suits and warships. Across the battlefield Allison saw ZAFT mobile suits go down, and while the renegades were taking casualties as well she was well aware that if this became a battle of attrition then it would favor the enemy.

_We can't let them win_, she thought as she took another shot with her heavy rifle, only for the targeted GINN to dodge the blast, _No matter what happens, we can't let them drop that colony!_

That was easier said than done. The ZAKU teams were still pressing forward, but Allison realized with growing alarm that the attack was already beginning to stall. The renegades had managed to force ZAFT's front formations to break up as a vicious mobile suit brawl continued to unfold, draining Task Force Aurora of its forward momentum. Allison noticed that the frigate screen had pulled back slightly, but that was an organized tactical move designed to maintain a defense of the ruins rather than the first sign of a retreat.

The mobile suits weren't the only units taking losses; Allison cringed as she saw ZAFT's first capital ship casualty of the fight, a destroyer, succumb to a concentrated barrage of heavy particle beams. The renegades lost a frigate mere seconds later, but seeing as they still held the numerical advantage it was a loss that they could afford.

"Damn it," she hissed, "We have to turn this around!"

Determined to turn words into action, Allison cut loose again with her rifle. The crimson blast of energy found its mark, obliterating another GINN. She didn't have time to celebrate her kill, though; another GINN was rapidly closing in on her. Knowing that she'd never be able to draw a bead on it in time, Allison readied her beam tomahawk instead.

She caught the enemy's beam saber on her melee weapon and deflected the blow. Following her training, she then hit her thrusters and slammed into the GINN shield-first in a textbook charge. The impact knocked her foe back, and Allison quickly followed up by hacking into the GINN's torso with her beam tomahawk.

"One less to worry about," she said as the machine exploded.

There were plenty more to go, though. Three more GINNs rushed in, and Allison found herself rapidly falling back, firing as she went. The crimson beam from her rifle caused the enemy trio to scatter, but that only bought her a second as her adversaries were now coming in from different vectors.

An emerald beam caught one of the GINNs in the back, and Allison saw that it was Fred's Blaze ZAKU that had fired the shot. Emboldened, Allison took another shot of her own, but she failed to hit either of the other two GINNs. Both of them were now moving in on Fred, and before Allison could do anything about it the two mobile suits fired in unison and turned her comrade into a fireball.

"No!" she screamed, "Fred!"

Both GINNs had already turned away from the exploding GINN and were coming back at her. Acting on instinct, Allison pulled the trigger again, and this time her shot caught one of the GINNs head on and destroyed it. The second one had its rifle aimed square at her, but before it could fire a green Blaze ZAKU Phantom slammed into it shield-first before cutting it down with its beam tomahawk.

"Keep it together, Allison," said Hall grimly, "There'll be plenty more death before today is done."

Allison nodded somberly. "Understood, sir."

There was enough death to go around as it was. The clash between the ZAFT mobile suits and those of the renegades was bogging down in a brutal brawl, and Allison knew that her team was far from the only one to have taken casualties. ZAKUs and GINNs raced across space, tearing into each other with particle beams, energy sabers, and missiles. So far the loss ratio appeared to be even, but that meant that the battle was still one of attrition, and that was a contest that Allison knew her side just could not afford. ZAFT appeared to have lost its forward momentum; the renegades were not yielding any ground. Their defense of the falling ruins was fanatical, and Allison was appalled that they seemed so eager to give their lives in the name of genocide.

_Is this how they fought in the last war?_, she thought, _This is the enemy my brother died fighting against? They're completely insane!_

During the war all the news networks had always played up the zealous hatred that Blue Cosmos had for Coordinators. Patrick Zala's propaganda machine had gone into overdrive to not only emphasize the threat they posed, but to associate them with the rest of the Natural population as well even though any sane person could tell that Blue Cosmos was a minority. A very extreme and very vocal minority, but a minority nonetheless. Allison had to wonder how the Naturals would view her own people once they learned that a minority group of Coordinators were once again trying to wipe them out; Patrick Zala had given them enough of a bad reputation as it was, and that wasn't counting the stigma that some already had towards them with regards to how they were born in the first place.

"Damn it," her flight lead said over the tactical channel, "We've got to regain the momentum! Allison, stick with me!"

Allison nodded. "Right behind you, sir!"

The two of them moved forward, with the other two survivors of their team quickly joining up with them. Reformed, Allison's team opened up in a coordinated barrage, and four modified GINNs fell to their fire. The enemy didn't take the fire lying down though; a counterattack took out the last Slash ZAKU on Allison's team.

_Damn it!_, she thought as she took particle beams on her shield, _Not Andre too!_

Now her team was down to half strength, and it was making no further headway. Quickly glancing at her sensors, Allison saw that the rest of the ZAFT mobile suit squadrons were still bogged down as well. All the while the ruins of Junius Seven continued down their inexorable path to Earth, a looming reminder in the background of the battle of what the cost of failure would be.

Like the mobile suits that they had launched, the capital ships of both sides continued to trade fire as well. Their salvos of particle beams, railgun slugs, and missiles lit up space in a lethal pyrotechnic display, ripping apart any mobile suit unfortunate enough to get caught in the crossfire. Losses remained attritional here as well; the renegades had lost two more frigates in exchange for the same amount of ZAFT destroyers, and other warships on both sides were sporting varying degrees of damage.

_We need help!_, thought Allison, _Commander Roussin's frontal assault isn't working! Where's the Minerva?_

If they were going to continue to attack the enemy head on like this, only something truly game-changing like ZAFT's newest battleship would be able to punch through the renegades' lines. Allison might not be assigned to the _Minerva_, but every member of the fleet had studied the new warship when her schematics had been released to the rank and file. Less information had been released about its mobile suits, and if rumor was to be believed then two of them had been destroyed during the fighting at Armory One, but even then the sophisticated ship and its machines would go a long way towards turning the tide right now. Allison mentally cursed Commander Roussin for launching his assault before the _Minerva _had joined Task Force Aurora. Yes, she understood full well that they were on a time crunch for this mission and that the stakes were phenomenally high, but surely remaining on standby until the _Minerva _had rendezvoused with the rest of the task force wouldn't have cost them too much.

Allison shook her head. It was too late to worry about that now. All she could do was fight to the best of her abilities and hope that the reinforcements they needed would arrive before it was too late.

She pushed forward with her two comrades but quickly ran into fierce opposition. Multiple GINNs fell upon them, unleashing a rain of fire with their beam carbines. Allison's team was immediately put on the defensive; it was all they could do at this point to simply stay alive. She cut loose with her heavy rifle, but there was no time for her to properly line up her shots, and all her blasts of crimson energy did was force the enemy to briefly go evasive before lining up for another shot at her. The same went for her comrades, and she saw that even her flight lead was struggling against the onslaught. If this kept up then eventually the renegades would begin to punch through ZAFT's forward assault squadrons, and then they would be able to attack the teams carrying the drills. The battle was only minutes old, but already the tide seemed to be in favor of the enemy.

**Start "Ambiguous"**

Suddenly a male voice came across Task Force Aurora's tactical channel. "ZAFT squadrons, clear this lane now!"

Before Allison could wonder who the speaker was she heard a beeping coming from her sensor board. Checking the display, she saw a broad red line suddenly running across it. Acting on instinct, she quickly moved to make sure that she wasn't in the lane, and the rest of her comrades did the same.

She was still wondering what was going on when a massive blast of golden-yellow hellfire ripped across that very firing lane and tore into the renegades' formations. At least seven modified GINNs were blown apart, and the blast didn't stop there; it slammed into a _Laurasia_-class frigate and turned it into a fireball.

Allison's eyes widened in shock. Only _one _weapon in the entire Earth Sphere generated _that _kind of blast.

_No way_, she thought, _It _can't _be…_

She frantically scanned her display and quickly found the source of the blast. The entire battlefield seemed to freeze with that one shot, and Allison knew full well why. A blast like _that _hadn't been seen for over two years.

"Impossible…" she whispered.

Rumors had been circulating throughout the fleet that _it _had returned, and that _it _was more powerful than ever. Allison had never put much stock in rumors; all too often they were as far from the truth as possible.

But this time they were dead on.

It may have been upgraded, but even with its four white wings the mobile suit could not be mistaken for anything other than what it truly was.

Wing Zero.

The Demon Lord of Avalon had taken the field…

…and he was not alone.

Four new mobile suits were flying right behind him, units unlike any that Allison had ever seen before. There was a black machine that might as well have been a mechanical Grim Reaper, complete with a wicked-looking emerald beam scythe. There was a dark blue mobile suit that looked like nothing less than a flying artillery battery, and Allison could only imagine what it would be like to get caught on the wrong end of its fearsome array of weaponry. There was a machine that looked like it would be more at home in the desert with its tan shroud and curved metal blades, but the way it was flying made it clear that its pilot was certainly not out of their element in outer space. Last but certainly not least was a green mobile suit with a blazing double-ended beam trident and two strange dragon-like devices mounted at the end of its arms, clearly another close-combat oriented unit. The group of five unique machines was coming in fast, and they were heading right for the center of the renegades' line.

As the five mobile suits flew through ZAFT's ranks the voice of Heero Yuy came over the radio again. "We'll punch through their lines. Task Force Aurora, once we've cleared you a hole get the drill teams inside!"

It didn't take Commander Roussin long to reply. "Who the hell do you think you are?"

"Your only hope at success," the legendary pilot replied curtly, "Heero Yuy, out."

The Demon Lord of Avalon apparently didn't feel like waiting for the ZAFT commander to respond. The upgraded Wing Zero and the other four mobile suits continued to move forward, and this time when the famous machine engaged the renegades it was joined by its four companions. Allison watched in awe as Heero Yuy opened up with his mobile suit's hip-mounted rail guns and shoulder-mounted machine cannons, ripping four modified GINNs to shreds. The black mobile suit rushed into a trio of GINNs and took them all down with a broad slash from its beam scythe. The unit with the twin curved blades had moved to the front as well and proceeded to carve up two more GINNs in the blink of an eye. Meanwhile the blue unit with all the artillery cut loose with a hail of bullets and a stream of yellow particle beams, blowing apart five mobile suits in rapid succession. Not to be left out, the emerald machine rushed forward at lightning speed, and with its whirling beam trident tore apart three GINNs before demolishing two more with the dragon-like devices at the end of its arms.

"Sir?" said Allison nervously, "What do we do?"

Her flight lead chuckled. "I don't know what Commander Roussin's thinking of, but I know what we _need _to do in order to win here. How do you feel about backing up a living legend, Allison?"

Allison smiled. "Sounds good to me."

"How about you, Sergei?" Hall asked their surviving teammate.

"I'm game," the pilot of the Blaze ZAKU replied in his deep bass tone, "Always wanted to see what all the fuss was about with this guy."

"Agreed," said Hall, "All right, you two. I'll take point. Let's move!"

"Got it!" Allison and Sergei replied together.

As her team began to move forward Allison saw that it wasn't the only one; other forward assault teams had apparently decided not to wait for Commander Roussin's instructions. They were regrouping and redoubling their attacks, fighting with a new sense of energy and vigor that they didn't have earlier, and Allison knew exactly what the source of it was.

As the new tip of the spear, Allison saw Wing Zero once again open up with its unholy rifle. The bane of Avalon and GENESIS cut loose with a fearsome blast of golden-yellow hellfire that utterly obliterated six GINNs before annihilating a frigate. Two GINNs actually managed to open fire on Wing Zero, but their shots didn't come anywhere close to their target. Propelled by waves of azure light and blue fire emanating from its four white wings, the famous mobile suit easily evaded the shots as it closed the distance with the two machines that had fired them. In the blink of an eye and a flash of emerald light the unit's beam saber had sliced both GINNs in half.

Keeping pace with the Demon Lord of Avalon, the other four unique mobile suits were no less lethal as they carved a swath of destruction through the ranks of the renegades. Allison watched as the black machine brought its beam scythe down in a hard chop and sliced a GINN in half vertically. With a blast from its energy cannons the blue artillery unit blew apart a GINN before shredding another with a hail of bullets from its gatlings. The unit with the twin curved blades cut down one GINN while blocking a beam saber strike from another, the blade deflecting the blow crackling with energy as it redirected the attack before countering and ripping apart the renegade mobile suit. Meanwhile, the green mobile suit had let fly with both its strange dragon weapons, and the mechanical serpents slammed into two GINNs and crushed them.

All across the battlefield Allison could see the ZAFT forces rallying. With the arrival of those five machines, Task Force Aurora had regained its momentum. Allison also saw the renegades frantically redeploying their forces, clearly trying to concentrate their might against the new arrivals.

_We can do this_, thought Allison as she sighted in on a target, _We've got a chance now! I never thought I'd be fighting alongside the Demon Lord of Avalon, but I'm not about to complain!_

_ Let's do this!_

….

Sighting in on his next target, Heero raised the Twin Buster Rifle and pulled the trigger. A tsunami of energy ripped forth, wiping out five of the renegades' GINNs before nailing a frigate.

_Six capital ships down_, he thought, _but thirty-four more to go. I'd really like to know how these guys got their hands on so much hardware._

That would be a matter that he'd have to discuss with Eric Bristow and Andrew Waltfeld once the fighting was done. Right now the only thing that was important was making sure that the enemy fleet was not allowed to complete their dark mission.

Fortunately the Gundam pilots were off to a good start on turning the battle around. Their entrance had bought Task Force Aurora some much needed room to regroup, especially since the bulk of the enemy forces were now reorienting themselves to face Heero and his friends. This was no surprise; if the renegades were all adherents of Patrick Zala's ideology then it stood to reason that most if not all of them had served that regime in the last war, and that they all knew exactly who Heero was and what he was capable of. Wing Zero Albion was by far the biggest threat to their plan, so they would stop at nothing to take it down.

As Heero stabbed a GINN through the cockpit with his emerald blade he saw his fellow Gundam pilots wreaking havoc of their own against the enemy. Duo had vanished from sensors a moment ago, only to reappear behind two GINNs. As his cloak deactivated he swung his beam scythe and sliced both mobile suits in half. Beam trident whirling like an emerald cyclone, Wufei mauled three mobile suits in a matter of seconds, while the incredible maneuverability provided by his upgraded engines kept him well ahead of any fire that the enemy could throw his way. Quatre had just hacked one GINN to pieces with his Heat Shotels before whirling around and splitting another one in half. Not to be left out, Trowa was filling the sky with bullets and particle beams, and a group of four modified GINNs was turned into a string of firecrackers.

Checking his sensors, Heero could see the forward mobile suit squadrons of Task Force Aurora moving to back up the Gundam pilots. They were moving faster than Heero had expected given Commander Roussin's reaction to him taking the field and issuing orders. Apparently the mobile suit team leads had decided that it was better to be proactive and support the Gundam pilots rather than wait for their Commander to give them the order, which Heero was definitely grateful for. However, it now seemed that the task force Commander had come around; the sixteen surviving destroyers and the single cruiser were moving up again, continuing to trade fire with the renegade fleet.

_As long as no one shoots us in the back_, Heero thought, _The last thing we need right now is a two-front fight._

He got on his team's tactical channel while ripping apart a modified GINN with a quick burst from his machine cannons. "I'll stay on point. Duo, Wufei, take the left flank. Quatre, Trowa, you're on the right. Let's try to widen the path for the ZAFT squadrons."

"Copy that," said Quatre while hacking another GINN to pieces.

"Sure," said Duo as he sliced a renegade mobile suit in half, "but do you really have to put me with him?"

"What's the matter, Duo?" said Wufei with a chuckle as he impaled a GINN with his beam trident, "Afraid you can't keep up?"

"Oh, it's _on_, Wufei!" said Duo.

"Keep it together you two," said Trowa while pulverizing an enemy machine with his beam cannons, "We're supposed to be a team here, remember?"

"Nothing wrong with a little friendly competition, right?" said Duo.

"Whatever," said Wufei, "Just don't whine when I win."

Another flight lead might be worried about two teammates talking like that, but not Heero. Gundam pilots as a rule were independently-minded, and that did foster some competition from time to time. However, when the chips were down they were more than capable of working together even if outwardly they only seemed concerned with outperforming each other.

Heero's concern was not his friends; it was his enemies that had his attention. Wing Zero had fought against ZAFT longer than it had against the Earth Alliance, and thanks to people like Eric and Shemei Bristow Heero was well aware of the reputation he'd had with them during the Bloody Valentine War. He had repeatedly played a vital role in foiling their attempts to destroy the _Archangel_, had annihilated entire task forces and savaged fleets, had obliterated their most powerful battle station and had turned their secret weapon into a fireball. He had torn through the ranks of the Special Operations Squadrons, Patrick Zala's Praetorian Guard, and had defeated the best mercenaries that the radicals could recruit. It was not out of ego that Heero believed that he was the single deadliest combatant the forces loyal to Patrick Zala had faced in the conflict; it was an observation based on information gathered from ZAFT defectors both during and after the war.

_If the renegades concentrate on me specifically it should make our operation easier_, Heero thought, _It'll give the others more room to operate, especially the drill teams. However, my very presence here could also make their defense of the ruins more fanatical. We'll just have to play it by ear._

Sighting in on his next target, Heero opened fire with the Twin Buster Rifle. The powerful blast of energy ripped through space, incinerating four modified GINNs before hitting a frigate head on and obliterating it. To his left he saw Duo and Wufei tearing into a group of renegade mobile suits. Despite their earlier banter they were working quite well together, with Duo actually closing his Active Cloak Beam Deflection Barrier and using it along with the built in Micro-Defensors to block beam fire for Wufei while Altron Custom let fly with its Dragon Fangs and crushed a pair of GINNs. Wufei then rushed forward and impaled another GINN through the cockpit, giving Duo room to reopen his cloak to improve his mobility before Deathscythe Omega charged in and took a broad swing with its beam scythe, slicing two modified GINNs in half.

To his right he saw Trowa and Quatre absolutely going to town on the enemy. Multiple panels had opened up on Heavyarms Arsenal, revealing its smaller Gatling Guns and missile launchers. Trowa unleashed a storm of bullets and missiles, wiping out no less than a dozen modified GINNs. Two renegade mobile suits tried to attack him up close, but before they could attack with their beam sabers they were intercepted by Quatre. Sandrock Saladin immediately tore into them, cutting down one GINN with a diagonal slash before stabbing the second through the cockpit.

The Gundam pilots weren't the only ones tearing into the enemy. The ZAFT mobile suits were continuing to press forward. To Heero they seemed to be fighting harder now than they had before he and his friends had taken the field. Eric Bristow and Andrew Waltfeld, to just name a few, had mentioned to Heero in the past the kind of affect he had on peoples' morale whenever he entered the battlefield, but he'd never really paid attention to it until now. However, the renegades were still very much holding their own against Task Force Aurora, and Heero knew that the ZAFT pilots would take plenty more casualties before this fierce fight was over.

Task Force Aurora's capital ships were still trading fire with the renegade frigates, but unlike the mobile suit fight the clash of warships was still very much an attritional affair. Two more renegade frigates had been destroyed by salvos from Task Force Aurora, but the ZAFT battle group had also lost two more destroyers. The renegades still had thirty-one warships to Task Force Aurora's fifteen, and Heero knew that unless he could draw more attention his way the losses among the ZAFT ships would only get worse.

_They're soldiers_, he thought as he cut a GINN down with his beam saber, _They know what they signed up for. They know that they may have to lay down their lives in service to the PLANTs. All I can do is make sure that the ones that fall today do not die in vain._

Deflecting beam carbine fire with his energy shields, Heero quickly targeted the two GINNs that had taken the shots and took them down with a salvo from his railguns. He then took aim with the Twin Buster Rifle and opened up, taking down four more GINNs and a frigate. On his sensors he could now see a very distinct gap in the renegades' lines thanks to the shots from his rifle, and he knew what to do next.

He got on his team's tactical channel while transmitting them his data. "We've got an opening now. Let's focus on widening this gap."

"You got it," said Duo, "Let's go, Wufei!"

"Who put you in charge?" Wufei quipped, but Heero could see Altron Custom forming up with Deathscythe Omega all the same.

"Understood," said Quatre, "Trowa, cover me!"

"I've got your back," Trowa replied.

Heero switched over to Task Force Aurora's tactical channel and sent them the data he'd just given his friends. "Attention ZAFT squadrons. We're going to concentrate our efforts here. If you want your drill teams to make it to the colony then help us widen this breach in their lines."

To his surprise he actually got a response. "This is flight lead Peter Hall. We're moving in now!"

Other ZAFT team commanders sounded off as well. There was no response from the task force Commander, but given the reception Heero had gotten from the man earlier he hadn't been expecting one.

As he continued to move forward he noticed a shift in the renegades' formation. The frigates that were between him and the colony were moving into a crescent-shape, and Heero realized that they were trying to set up to hit him and the others in crossfire as they went for the gap in the lines.

_Their commander's no amateur_, Heero thought, _but their move has limits, especially since they still have other ships positioned at different parts of the colony to hold off an attack from another angle. They're too spread out, and they're vulnerable from the Y-axis. Let's use that._

He got back on his team's channel. "Let's shift and hit the right arm of the enemy fleet. That should take the heat off the drill teams when they make their run to the ruins. Attack them from above and below."

"Copy that," said Duo.

"Understood," said Wufei.

"We're on it," said Quatre.

"Affirmative," said Trowa.

Heero took Wing Zero Albion into a climb, and he was joined by Duo and Wufei. Meanwhile, Quatre and Trowa dived as they prepared to hit the enemy from below. The affect on the renegades was immediate; the modified GINN squadrons were already moving to intercept them, and Heero noticed that more were coming towards his group than at Quatre and Trowa. The enemy capital ships were likewise splitting their fire, and again more of them were aiming at Heero's trio than at Heavyarms Arsenal and Sandrock Saladin. That was fine with Heero; as long as the frigates and mobile suits were attacking him and his friends that would give the ZAFT mobile suit squadrons a better chance to move forward and eventually break through to Junius Seven.

Duo and Wufei moved out ahead of Heero to intercept the incoming GINNs. They wasted no time in tearing into their foes. Two fell to a broad swing from Duo's beam scythe while another was impaled on Wufei's beam trident before a Dragon Fang flew forth and crushed another mobile suit. Down below he saw Quatre performing a similar role for Trowa, slicing apart two GINNs with his Heat Shotels. Using the room provided by Quatre, Trowa cut loose with his Gatling guns, beam cannons, and missile launchers, wiping out a dozen mobile suits in a hail of fire.

Now it was Heero's turn. He started with a quick and precise burst from his machine cannons, shredding a GINN. Two more mobile suits fell to a salvo from his railguns. Heero then took aim and opened fire with the Twin Buster Rifle. The blast only took out a single GINN, but that mobile suit was not his target; the frigate that the shot subsequently annihilated was.

A beeping came from his sensors. Checking the display, Heero nodded in approval when he saw the new contacts. It was three warships coming in fast, and they were all launching mobile suits.

And the lead vessel was the _Minerva_.

**End "Ambiguous"**

….

"Captain," said Arthur, "the Tannhäuser has its target locked!"

Talia nodded. "Fire!"

A crimson blast ripped forth from the _Minerva_'s positron cannon. The wave of energy slammed into a frigate and turned it into a fireball.

_One down_, thought Talia, _and plenty more to go._

There were still twenty-eight renegade frigates left on the battlefield. Twenty-one of them made up the crescent-formation that was trying to catch the Gundam pilots and the mobile suit squadrons of Task Force Aurora in crossfire, while the remaining seven were still scattered around the rest of the colony to provide advance notice and to buy time in the event of attacks from other vectors. The main body of Task Force Aurora, on the other hand, had been reduced to thirteen _Nazca_-class destroyers and the _Hel_-class cruiser _Freya_. Talia knew that the arrival of the _Minerva _with two additional destroyers in tow would immensely help the situation, but as she checked the data on her personal monitor she noticed that almost all the warships of the battle group's main body, including the _Freya_, had suffered varying degrees of damage. Even with her battleship, the other two destroyers, and their mobile suits now on the scene, ZAFT still faced an uphill battle.

She hoped that the new mobile suits racing into the fight would be up to the challenge. Shinn was using Force Impulse for this sortie; Talia had judged that its maneuverability and versatility would be valuable assets for this battle. Lunamaria was once again using the Gunner pack for her ZAKU Warrior, while Athrun had a Blaze pack for his and Rey had the same mounted on his ZAKU Phantom. The mobile suits launched from the two destroyers were a mixed bag. One ship had carried only GuAIZ Rs, while the other had a ZAKU Phantom and five ZAKU Warriors, with four of the latter using Blaze packs and one with a Gunner pack while the former had a Slash pack. It was a formidable fighting force, but Talia knew that the pilots from the two destroyers were all green, and her own subordinates only had two battles under their belt, and neither of them were anywhere near the scale of this clash.

_Be careful, all of you_, she thought, _Don't underestimate the enemy just because they're using older units. These are people who were willing to fight and die for the monstrous ideals of Patrick Zala. They survived the hell of the last war; their experience and fanaticism will more than make up for any technological gap._

Looking over at the chair occupied by Lady Cagalli, she saw her staring intently at the battle unfolding on the main monitor. She was quite tense in her chair, and with the way she was braced Talia could tell that it was taking all of her self-control to remain where she was and keep her composure. Talia recalled that Lady Cagalli had actually fought on the front lines during the last war as a mobile suit pilot; doubtlessly she wished to be out there now rather than the bridge of the _Minerva_. Talia though that it was quite irresponsible for a nation's leader to be anywhere near a battle, but she still admired Lady Cagalli's bravery and commitment.

Towards the back of the bridge, Talia saw Marilyn Peterson studying the battle as well. For a civilian she was proving to have a remarkable tolerance for battle. She looked quite calm as she watched the fighting on the main monitor, and if she was at all concerned about the potential risk she faced being on the bridge of a warship flying into the clash she did not show it. That sort of nerve did not come from nowhere, but now was hardly the time for Talia to speculate on where the independent journalist had acquired it from.

Turning back towards the fight, Talia watched as Heero Yuy and the other Gundam pilots did what they did best; wreak utter havoc against the enemy. They were concentrating their efforts on the right wing of the renegades' formation, and judging from the amount of fire the enemy was pouring at them Talia knew that they were the only reason that Task Force Aurora wasn't on the verge of annihilation.

_As impressive as always, Heero Yuy_, she thought, _Thanks to you, Operation Redemption still has a chance at success._

There was still time to get the drill teams through the gauntlet, but ZAFT would have to act quickly. The _Minerva _needed to wade into the thick of the fighting and draw sufficient enemy fire to keep the renegades from plugging the gap in their lines that had been opened by the Gundam pilots.

"Helm," she said, "all forward! Weapons, target the closest enemy warships and fire at will!"

_Here we go…_

….

"Listen up," said Athrun as he and the _Minerva_'s pilots rushed to join the battle, "Our top priority here is to secure the breach in the enemy's lines for the drill teams and then make sure they're able to position and activate their equipment. To do that we need to get to the front of the pack and do some damage. The Gundam pilots have already made the breach in the renegades' ranks; let's make sure it stays open."

"Copy that," said Rey.

"Affirmative," said Lunamaria.

"How do you want to do this?" asked Shinn.

"Rey, Shinn, and I will be the spearhead," Athrun replied, "Lunamaria, we'll be counting on you for heavy fire support."

"I won't let you down!" said Lunamaria.

"Shinn, you're point," said Athrun, "I'll cover your left flank. Rey, take the right. Lunamaria will stay behind us."

Athrun honestly would've preferred to take point himself, but Shinn's mobile suit with the Force Silhouette pack was the fastest unit in their group. When that factor was combined with the Impulse's Variable Phase Shift Armor it made sense for that unit to take point even if Athrun had far greater skill and combat experience.

For his part, Shinn seemed all too psyched up at being made the tip of the spear. "Got it! Let's take these guys down!"

Force Impulse rocketed to the head of the pack, and Athrun and the others were hard pressed to keep pace. Renegade mobile suits were already moving to intercept them.

"Engage at will!" Athrun ordered.

Shinn was the first to attack. Opening fire with his beam rifle, he picked off a GINN before rushing in to clash beam sabers with another. Rey and Athrun likewise opened up with their guns and took out targets of their own while Lunamaria cut loose with her heavy rifle and destroyed another mobile suit.

More units were coming in fast, and Athrun braced himself for close-quarters-combat. Raising his beam tomahawk, he blocked a saber strike from a GINN before retaliating with a swift chop to the enemy's cockpit. Up ahead he saw Shinn deflect an enemy's saber strike on his shield before cutting the GINN that had attacked him in half. Rey and Lunamaria were still managing to keep their foes at long range though, and were letting loose with a near constant stream of fire from their rifles.

_They've improved since the last fight_, he thought, _I just hope that they can keep this up._

Athrun was just relieved that they were only drawing a small part of the enemy's attention. Heero and the other Gundam pilots were up at the front of the fight, and the renegades were clearly doing everything they could to try to take them down. So far all they seemed to be getting for their efforts was a lot of destroyed GINNs. Task Force Aurora was taking full advantage of that as they continued their drive towards the gap in the renegades' lines, and if things kept going at this rate Athrun was sure that the drill teams would make it to the ruins with time to spare.

Seeing those ruins floating in the background, slowly descending towards Earth, threatened to make Athrun's blood boil. This wasn't the bulky scrap of a decommissioned colony that the renegades had turned into a weapon of mass destruction. This was a mass grave for nearly a quarter of a million people, including his mother. That fellow Coordinators, of all people, would repurpose such hallowed ground as a tool of murder on such a titanic scale was beyond the pale.

_These people…_, thought Athrun, _They all believe in father's madness? They really think that _this _is justified?_

Were these renegades the ghosts of the last war? Was this the legacy his father had left to him; to be the one to confront his followers and send them to follow their late master to the grave? Was this how his family name would be used from now on, as a banner for those consumed by the call of vengeance and Coordinator supremacy?

Would Athrun Zala spend the rest of his life trying to combat the sins of his father?

He shook his head. Now was not the time to be thinking like that. If he didn't stop the renegades here and now then mankind on Earth would be paying for his father's legacy in a way that Athrun could _never _atone for.

"Go to hell!" he growled as he hacked into a GINN with his beam tomahawk, "Go to hell and take my father's ghost with you!"

He pressed his assault against the renegades, fighting much more aggressively than he had been mere seconds ago. A small part of his mind told him that he needed to let up just a little bit, to cool down and fight rationally, but right now he would have none of it. He was dead set on racing to the front of battlefield and making the renegades pay for repurposing his mother's grave as a makeshift meteor.

A trio of GINNs rushed in to take him down, only to be wiped out by the flurry of missiles Athrun unleashed from the Blaze pack's launchers. Beam fire from his rifle scattered more machines, making them easier targets for Rey and Lunamaria. Athrun was now moving forward so quickly that he was now even with Shinn despite the Force Impulse being the faster unit; he was forgetting that his role in this fight was supposed to be to cover the ZAFT pilot's flank.

If Shinn had noticed that his wingman was moving to supplant him at the front he apparently didn't care. The ZAFT pilot had his hands full carving himself a path through the renegades' ranks. For a new pilot fighting against veteran foes, Shinn was doing quite well for himself. It was hard to say how much of that was due to his advanced mobile suit and how much was because of his apparently natural talent. Had Athrun been a little calmer he would've been able to appreciate Shinn's excellent use of both his beam saber and rifle as he took down one renegade mobile suit after another. Rey and Lunamaria were helping considerably by keeping the enemy off his back, but there was no denying that Shinn was definitely holding his own and certainly proving that he had talent worthy of a ZAFT Red.

The front of the fight got closer every second as the four pilots powered their way through the enemy mobile suits. No ZAFT team on the field could match Athrun and the three pilots with him for effectiveness despite the fact that Athrun was paying less attention to working with his comrades than he should be. The only group of mobile suits that was doing better than them was Heero's team, and Athrun wasn't particularly concerned about failing to clear the bar set by them.

The mobile suits may have been pressing forward, but the capital ship fight was still a brutal slog. The arrival of the _Minerva _and the two destroyers accompanying her was a much needed boost for Task Force Aurora, but their progress was still much slower than those of the mobile suit squadrons. Streams of heavy particle beams, railgun rounds, and missiles continued to crisscross the space between the two forces. Another _Nazca_-class destroyer from the main body of Task Force Aurora succumbed to enemy fire, leaving twelve of those ships left not counting the two that were with the _Minerva_. The _Hel_-class cruiser _Freya _was still in the fight, but like the other surviving vessels in the main body the flagship was sporting its share of battle damage.

The renegades had lost another frigate in exchange for taking down the ZAFT destroyer, but with twenty-seven ships still left in the fight they remained in a better position than Task Force Aurora. Their modified GINNs may have been dropping like flies against the Gundam pilots and Athrun's group, but they were still making the main ZAFT squadrons pay for every bit of ground that they gained.

_All this death_, he thought as he shot down another GINN, _All this destruction… and all in the name of my father. This has to stop!_

"Athrun," said Rey, "you need to slow down!"

"You're too far forward!" cried Lunamaria, "I can't cover you!"

Athrun was surprised to realize that they were right. Shinn had slowed down to avoid leaving his teammates behind, but Athrun had continued to power forward in stubborn determination. Now it was costing him; a group of GINNs was about to surround him, and Athrun's teammates were racing to catch up to him before it was too late.

Suddenly two railgun rounds came flying in from out of nowhere, and a pair of GINNs went down. As Athrun took out another GINN with his beam rifle he saw one more fall to a quick burst of machine cannon fire. It didn't take long to find the source; it was Wing Zero Albion.

The helmeted face of Heero Yuy appeared in the upper right corner of his monitor. "You're not flying the Justice, Athrun. Stop acting like it."

"Heero!" he said, "Why'd you come back here?"

"Because I saw you flying like you're trying to end this whole battle by yourself," he replied as he cut down a GINN with his emerald blade, "You can't do that here, Athrun. You're going to get yourself killed."

"These people are fighting here because of my father!" he shouted as he hacked into a GINN with his beam tomahawk, "It's my responsibility to stop them!"

"Will that be any comfort to Cagalli when you go down in flames in the attempt?" asked Heero pointedly as he deflected beam fire with his energy shields, "Somehow I doubt that. She lost her father two years ago, Athrun. Don't make her suffer the pain of losing you, too."

Athrun was ashamed that he hadn't considered that earlier. "Damn it. I… I just want to stop this, Heero!"

"So do the rest of us," Heero replied, "and we will. We defeated Patrick Zala at Jachin Due two years ago, and we'll defeat his phantoms today."

"But we're going too slow!" said Athrun as he dodged beam fire, "We have to pick up the pace!"

"And we will," said Heero calmly while blocking more particle beams with his shields, "Check your sensors, Athrun; the cavalry just showed up."

**Start "Realize"**

Athrun was about to do that when two pillars of crimson light came out of nowhere and slammed into a frigate on the renegades' left wing, turning the ship into a fireball. It only took him a moment to find the source of the shot. Even with its upgrades, the incoming battleship was unmistakable. The large central fuselage, the two 'legs' at the bow, the upraised bridge, the stabilizer wings running underneath, the vertical U-shaped fins behind the command tower, the heavy missile launchers protruding from the rear… everything about that ship was absolutely iconic.

It was the _Archangel_.

….

"Direct hit with the Lohengrins!" said Lieutenant Kimi Tsukino, the raven-haired Executive Officer of the _Archangel_, "First target's destroyed!"

Murrue nodded. Observing the results on the main monitor from her perch in the Captain's chair, she knew that they had no time to pat themselves on the back.

"Commence follow-up barrage on the second target!" she ordered, "Gottfrieds, Valiants; open fire!"

The large beam cannons mounted on the ship's 'knees' and the two heavy linear cannons mounted towards the rear of the vessel cut loose. The precise salvo of emerald particle beams and golden slugs nailed their target dead center; the bridge of a frigate was blown apart, along with most of the front of the ship.

_That's two more down_, she thought, _and twenty-five ships to go, not to mention their mobile suits. We've still got a long road ahead of us before this battle is won._

Fortunately Murrue was confident that her battleship had the power needed to help get them through the fight. The iconic white vessel retained its formidable array of Lohengrin positron blaster cannons, Gottfried heavy beam cannons, Valiant linear cannons, light and heavy anti-air and anti-ship missile launchers, and Igelstellung CIWS, along with its incredibly tough laminated armor, powerful engines, sophisticated communications array, anti-beam depth charges, and the advanced targeting system developed for it by Heero and Shemei during the last war. However, several major modifications and upgrades had also been made to the battleship that took her into a whole new level of lethality, thanks to the combined efforts of Erica Simmons, Heero Yuy, and Eric Bristow.

The ship's engines and power generators had been completely overhauled. Now the _Archangel _was powered by a brand new and highly sophisticated nuclear reactor, with no less than four N-Jammer Cancellers to ensure that it could function regardless of countermeasures deployed by ZAFT. The battleship could now reach speeds rivaling that of the swift _Nazca_-class destroyer, and the increased power from the reactor also meant more juice for the beefed up weapons array. The warship's superstructure had been strengthened and could now withstand even more punishment than it had previously been capable of taking, and that upgrade played a key role in another modification; the _Archangel _was now capable of travelling not just in space and on Earth, but also underwater.

The amount of Igelstellung 75mm automatic multi-barrel CIWS had been increased from 16 to twenty, tightening the ship's anti-air screen. At the very bottom of each of the two bow 'legs', just below the Lohengrin positron blaster cannons, were mounted two Mk. 56 torpedo launchers for underwater warfare. The Lohengrins themselves had been upgraded; they could now fire 'cleanly', avoiding the environmental radiation damage that was a side effect of the cannons during the last war. Mounted at the ends of the stabilizer wings running beneath the vessel were two turrets, each equipped with an MMI-M15 Xiphias rail cannon, the same type found on the ZGMF-X10A Freedom, which could be used both in normal combat and underwater, much like the heavier Valiant guns. As impressive as these improvements in the _Archangel_'s armaments were, though, they all paled in comparison to the crown jewel of her weapons upgrades.

Set upon the central hull, in front of the bridge and between the two Gottfried heavy beam cannons, was the most powerful weapon to ever be mounted on a Cosmic Era warship. Anchored in a turret mount that allowed for a degree of elevation and rotation was a large, dark grey cannon. Its main barrel was a utilitarian rectangle, but towards the end of the weapon it opened up like a tuning fork. This weapon, called the Buster Cannon, was one of the most carefully guarded secrets of Terminal, and one that would finally be revealed in all its fearsome glory if today's operation went according to plan.

From the communications station, Flay Allster turned to Murrue. "Captain, Heero's on the line!"

_He didn't waste any time_, thought Murrue with a smile, _That's so like him._

"Put him through," she ordered.

Her boyfriend appeared on the main monitor with a small smirk on his face. "Nice entrance."

Murrue chuckled. "I aim to please."

"Your timing's perfect," said Heero, "With your firepower we can provide the cover the ZAFT teams need to get to the surface of the ruins. Where's Natarle?"

Murrue smirked. "She's coming from the opposite side of the colony. I thought a strike at their flank would work for this situation."

Heero nodded. "I like it. Can you keep the heat up on the left wing of their forward force?"

"You know I can, Heero," Murrue replied, "If the renegades think the upgraded _Archangel _is bad enough, wait until they see the mobile suits we've got. They won't know what hit them."

"Agreed," said Heero, "Let's get to it."

Murrue nodded. "Be careful, Heero."

"You too," said Heero, "Zero, out."

As Heero disappeared from the screen Murrue turned towards Lacus, who was fulfilling Miriallia's duties as the ship's mobile suit flight coordinator in the latter's absence. Murrue had been worried about whether or not the pink-haired songstress could handle such responsibilities in combat, but Andrew Waltfeld had assured her that Lacus would be up to it.

"Get our pilots out there!" Murrue ordered, "The Waltfelds will act as our escort; the rest will attack the left arm of the enemy fleet!"

Lacus nodded. "Right away, Murrue!"

_All right_, she thought, _Let's get to work!_

….

Sitting in the ZGMF-X10A Freedom's cockpit wearing his white and blue flight suit, Kira saw the _Archangel_'s bow doors open up in front of him. Even from his position on the ship's starboard linear catapult he could see the rippling explosions and the crisscrossing fire of the ongoing battle, and he knew that he had to get out there as quickly as possible to help put an end to this insanity. He powered up his Phase Shift Armor, and although he could not see the outside of his mobile suit he knew that the Freedom was changing from dull gray to white, black, and blue.

In the top right corner of his main monitor he saw Lacus appear. "Kira, are you ready?"

Kira nodded. "I am. Let's do this!"

"All right," said Lacus, "You're clear to launch!"

Kira braced himself as he saw the signal lights for the linear catapult shift from red to green. "Kira Yamato, launching!"

The Freedom shot out of the starboard leg of the _Archangel_, and it was not the only mobile suit taking flight. From the left catapult flew a new model mobile suit, one of the many fruits of the collaboration between Heero Yuy and Erica Simmons over the past two years.

It was a crimson machine with a single green sensor 'eye' in its head. Unlike the Freedom, this mobile suit's armor was Gundanium alloy. Mounted on its shoulders and back were ten black disk-like devices; the shield drones known as Planet Defensors. Embedded in its head were two Igelstellung 75mm CIWS. In its right hand it held a circular shield, and from the emitter in the center of disk a yellow beam saber flared to life. Its left hand held an Orb Type 71beam rifle. The mobile suit's thrusters had been upgraded from the original model that it was based on, and it was capable of not only space combat but also full flight in Earth's atmosphere. While this unit's predecessor had been designed primarily as a defensive mobile suit, this new incarnation was considerably more versatile. It bore the numerical designation OZ-13MSX2R, and it went by the name Mercurius Kai.

Kira got on the tactical channel that Terminal's mobile suits would be operating on to contact the machine's pilot. "Yzak, are you ready?"

Yzak Joule appeared on his screen. Even through his black helmet's visor his silver hair and blue eyes were clearly visible. The scar Kira had given him in the last war was gone; the nineteen year old had it surgically removed as a sign that he'd gotten over the grudge he used to bear towards Kira back when the young man had flown the Strike against him.

His old enemy-turned-friend nodded. "Go on ahead, Kira. I'll wait for Dearka to launch and then we'll catch up with you."

"All right," said Kira, gunning his engines.

Even as he moved forward he kept one of his displays focused on the _Archangel_, and it wasn't long at all before two more mobile suits flew from the battleship's linear catapults. From the left catapult flew a yellow, black, and red mobile suit; an Orb MVF-M11C Murasame piloted by none other than the Desert Tiger and pained in his colors. From the right catapult flew a unique blue mobile suit piloted by Dearka Elsman that, much like the Mercurius Kai, was another fruit of the design collaboration between Heero Yuy and Erica Simmons; the OZ-13MSX1R Vayeate Kai.

Andrew Waltfeld's mobile suit was an evolution of both Orb's first mass production mobile suit, the M1 Astray, and another design provided to Morgenroete by Heero during the last war; the OZ-12SMS Taurus. The primary contribution from the latter was the Murasame's ability to transform into jet fighter-like mobile armor. That was a configuration that primarily saw use in atmospheric combat, and could utilize four wing-mounted M2M5D 12.5mm CIWS, a Type 72 High-energy Beam Cannon mounted in the tail stabilizer, and four Type 66A Hayate air-to-air missiles mounted in the unit's front skirt. In space and in most combat situations on Earth the machine operated in its mobile suit form, which was also capable of full atmospheric flight, although the mobile armor form was faster. The mobile suit form was armed with two head mounted M2M5D 12.5mm CIWS, a Type 70J Kai Beam Saber, a Type 72 Kai Ikazuchi Beam rifle, and a shield mounted on the left forearm. The shield also served as the nose unit of the mobile armor form, and if it was damaged or destroyed the mobile suit could not transform.

Meanwhile, the Vayeate Kai was a one-of-a-kind heavy assault mobile suit with considerably greater firepower than its predecessor from Heero's old world. Like the original unit it was constructed from Gundanium alloy, and its primary weapon, the heavy Beam Cannon, was roughly equal in firepower to that of the original Wing Gundam's Buster Rifle. The mobile suit's combat capabilities had been considerably expanded though, with two head mounted Igelstellung 75mm CIWS and two hip mounted MMI-M15 Xiphias rail cannons augmenting its primary armament. Like the Mercurius Kai, the Vayeate Kai was equipped with improved thrusters to allow for full atmospheric flight, and in the capable hands of Dearka it truly was a formidable artillery platform. The blue mobile suit was rapidly accelerating alongside its crimson partner, and Kira slowed up just a bit to allow them both to catch up to him before he engaged the renegades.

The last mobile suit to emerge from the _Archangel_ was another MVF-M11C Murasame. This machine bore a custom black paintjob with an emerald trim; the same colors Aisha Waltfeld had used on her old GuAIZ during the last war. The Desert Tiger's lover quickly took up position with him over the _Archangel_, ready to intercept any mobile suit that tried to attack the white battleship.

Looking ahead, Kira saw an enemy force that was completely unprepared for what was about to hit them. A few of the renegade frigates were frantically coming about to try to get the _Archangel _in their sights, and Kira decided to make them his first targets. Scattered GINNs were moving to intercept them, but they hardly counted as serious opposition.

As Dearka and Yzak formed up on his flanks, Kira was already sighting in with the Freedom's formidable array of artillery. He made sure that he was transmitting his targeting data to his friends so there would be no needless overlap.

"Here we go!" said Kira as he unleashed his barrage.

A torrent of crimson plasma lances, emerald particle beams, and yellow railgun rounds ripped across the stars. The bombardment hammered a frigate, knocking out its heavy weapons.

At the same time, Yzak and Dearka also opened fire. An emerald beam from Yzak's rifle pierced a GINN and blew it apart. Dearka launched a much more powerful barrage; two railgun slugs tore through a pair of GINNs, while a blast of yellow energy from his rifle slammed into a frigate and annihilated it.

As more mobile suits rushed in, Kira ignited his violet beam saber. It wasn't long before he had to use it, and he swiftly parried a strike from a GINN before counterattacking by slicing off both its sword arm and its head. The Mercurius Kai was likewise engaging in close-quarters-combat now; Yzak had already speared a GINN on his yellow blade before utilizing his ten Planet Defensors to deflect a barrage of particle beam fire. Dearka had pulled back slightly to allow his comrades to fend off the enemy units that had closed the distance while he provided supporting fire, taking down another machine with his railguns.

"Kira!" shouted Yzak, "Look out!"

Kira's eyes widened as he saw the GINN that he had disabled earlier charging right at him, beam rifle blazing. The Freedom's pilot blocked the shots on his shield before slicing off the GINN's rifle arm. As Kira pulled away from the GINN he thought that would be the end of their little clash, but he was stunned to see the mobile suit charge again despite now having no weapons whatsoever. Kira brought his shield up, and as the GINN hit it the mobile suit exploded.

_He self-destructed!_, thought Kira in shock, _He was willing to kill himself just for the chance to take me down!_

The renegade's move was futile; the Freedom's Phase Shift Armor was more than capable of standing up to the kind of power an explosion from a self-destructing GINN could generate, and the same went for his shield. However, it was a very ominous sign of the kind of battle he was involved in now… and a dark feeling settled in his gut as he realized that he could not hold back _at all _here.

A trio of GINNs rapidly approached him, and Kira cut loose with the Freedom's artillery. The barrage of particle beams, plasma lances, and railgun slugs blew apart the rifles wielded by the individual units, but they kept on coming, beam sabers blazing. Putting his beam rifle away and drawing his second beam saber, Kira met the GINNs head on. With a quick slash he took away one unit's sword arm while blocking a strike from another. He quickly countered and sliced off that GINN's sword arm as well before taking away the third GINN's beam saber with a railgun shot.

All three mobile suits were now completely disabled, but just like with the previous machine their pilots did not seem to care in the least. They all charged at Kira, and he opened fire…

…this time shooting to kill.

The three GINNs were torn apart by plasma cannon and railgun fire. It was three quick kills that Kira was in no mood to celebrate, and he had a sinking feeling that they would not be his last in this fight.

_It doesn't matter right now_, he thought grimly, _We have to stop them from dropping those ruins onto Earth, no matter what!_

**End "Realize"**

….

"No way…" said Lunamaria softly as she evaded enemy fire, "That can't be…"

But it very much was. Not only was the _Archangel _now on the battlefield, but the legendary battleship had also launched its mobile suits, and those included new models and a machine familiar to any soldier in the Cosmic Era.

_The Freedom's here_, thought Lunamaria, _I hope Shinn's okay…_

Lunamaria didn't know the details, but ever since their history lessons back in the ZAFT academy she was aware that Shinn had a strong dislike of that particular stolen nuclear powered mobile suit. She'd tried to press her friend for more information, but he'd always changed the subject, and after a while Lunamaria had just given up. She assumed it had something to do with his past, particularly the Battle of Elysium, but she had no way to confirm that. Trying to figure it out now would just be a pointless distraction, and she could only hope that Shinn would be able to stay focused on the battle.

_Keep it together, Shinn_, she thought, _I want us all to get through this mess in one piece!_

Lunamaria knew that she had to do the same. Just because the _Archangel _had arrived and was now attacking the renegades didn't mean that she was out of the woods quite yet. She had to focus on moving forward with her friends and punching through to the ruins of Junius Seven.

The combined assault of the Gundam pilots, the _Archangel_, and her mobile suits had shifted the momentum of the battle back in the favor of ZAFT. Task Force Aurora was pressing forward, and the gap in the renegades' lines was growing with each passing second. The five Gundams had the renegades' right wing in complete disarray, while the _Archangel _and her mobile suits were hammering the left. GINNs were dropping like flies, while the amount of frigates had been reduced to twenty-four, with one of those ships mostly disabled by the Freedom. Some of the renegades' mobile suit squadrons were beginning to fall back towards the surface of the ruins; they clearly intended to make ZAFT fight to secure every inch of Junius Seven before the drill teams would be allowed to safely plant their devices.

Her eyes narrowing, Lunamaria saw a GINN rushing in to attack Shinn from behind. Raising her rifle and pulling the trigger, she took the mobile suit down with a stream of crimson energy.

"Thanks, Luna!" said Shinn as he shot down a GINN with his beam rifle.

Lunamaria nodded. "No problem. Let's keep this up!"

"Agreed," said Rey as he hacked a GINN to pieces with his beam tomahawk, "We're making good progress."

"We're almost there!" said Athrun while shooting down a GINN with his beam rifle, "We can do this!"

Athrun had pulled back from where he was earlier and was now working with Lunamaria and her friends again. The ZAFT Red was glad that Heero Yuy seemed to have talked some sense into Athrun; having him cooperating with the rest of them was really helping their progress. As for the Demon Lord of Avalon, he had already carved a fresh swath of destruction through the enemy squadrons as he had pushed back forward to join his fellow Gundam pilots.

It was one of those Gundam pilots in particular that Lunamaria would periodically glance at. Even in this rapidly shifting battle it wasn't hard for her to pick out Wufei from the others. Altron Custom was ripping through renegade mobile suits like a buzz saw. His whirling double-ended beam trident was like an emerald cyclone of death, cutting down one GINN after another while the two Dragon Fangs mercilessly crushed machines that were out of the former weapon's range. The few particle beams that looked like they might hit Wufei were blocked by his Dragon Fangs, while his mobile suit's incredibly agility easily allowed him to evade the bulk of enemy fire.

Even after seeing his skills in two prior battles, Lunamaria could not help but be in awe of his abilities. The confidence he'd displayed since coming aboard the _Minerva _may have gotten on her nerves, but she could not deny that he was more than capable of backing it up. A lesser person might simply chalk up his power on the battlefield to his advanced mobile suit, but Lunamaria knew that there was far more to it than that. Every move he made was with purpose; there wasn't a bit of wasted energy. He was efficient and precise, always able to spot an opening and exploit it with lightning speed. There was a very brutal sense of beauty to the way he fought, a kind of terrifying grace in how effortlessly he appeared to be absolutely mauling his opposition.

The instructors at the ZAFT academy had heaped praise on the skills of Lunamaria, Rey, and Shinn, but she knew that if they could see the sort of people that she was fighting alongside now those compliments would be going in a different direction. She'd always known that she and her friends were new to being soldiers even if they'd scored high enough to be made ZAFT Reds, but it wasn't until she'd witnesses Wufei and the other Gundam pilots on the battlefield that she'd realized just how big the gap was between her and the true aces.

_If only I could be that good_, she thought as she watched him slice a GINN in half, _but… what's the price?_

Wufei had obviously paid one big time if their conversation in the _Minerva_'s mess was anything to go by, but it was driving Lunamaria crazy that she didn't have any idea as to the details behind it. He'd been way too cryptic about what he'd gone through, and Lunamaria was determined to get to the bottom of the mystery that was Wufei.

Of course, first she had to survive the battle she was currently fighting.

Up ahead she saw a familiar blast of golden-yellow hellfire as the Albion cut loose with its fearsome rifle. The wave of energy disintegrated two GINNs before hitting a frigate head on and turning it into a fireball. A torrent of bullets, punctuated by the occasional particle beams, was flowing from Heavyarms Arsenal, and Lunamaria saw trio of GINNs fall in the blink of an eye. Another was eviscerated by a swing from Duo Maxwell's beams scythe, while two more were hacked to pieces by Sandrock Saladin's curved blades.

A flash of crimson energy ripped forth from the _Minerva_'s positron cannon and obliterated a renegade frigate. At the same time Lunamaria saw another renegade vessel fall to a hail of particle beams from some of the capital ships of Task Force Aurora. Now the enemy was down to twenty-two warships, and their mobile suit squadrons were continuing to suffer heavy casualties, but they were not taking the beating lying down. Task Force Aurora had lost another destroyer, leaving eleven _Nazca_-class ships, the cruiser _Freya_, and the battleship _Minerva _to continue the fight. Were it not for the Gundam pilots and the _Archangel _Lunamaria was sure that the ZAFT casualties would be even worse.

"Lunamaria!" yelled Athrun, "You've got incoming!"

"Crap!" she hissed as she saw a GINN coming in fast.

She brought up her beam tomahawk and managed to block the strike, but she was unable to effectively counterattack. Close-quarters-combat was not her specialty, and her foe was able to come back at her for another attack.

She then saw a violet beam saber spear the GINN through the back. As the mobile suit exploded she saw the Impulse behind it.

"Thanks, Shinn!" she said.

"Anytime!" he replied.

Lunamaria then raised her rifle and fired, destroying a GINN that had been attempting to attack the Impulse from the flank. She looked around for another target, but she realized that there were none around. The bulk of the remaining renegade mobile suits were falling back to the ruins of Junius Seven now, and while it would mean a hard fight on the surface it also meant that the ZAFT teams could now finally start landing on the colony.

"Check it out!" said Shinn, "They're retreating!"

"Not quite," said Lunamaria, "They're just setting up a new defense line. We've got the initiative, though."

"We've got a good opening now," said Rey, "We should get to the colony."

"He's right," said Athrun, "Come on, let's move!"

Their group of four was already close to the front of the ZAFT force, and Lunamaria saw that they had almost caught up with the Gundam pilots. She was determined to close the rest of the gap so she could fight alongside one of those mobile suits in particular.

_Watch me, Wufei_, she thought, _Today I'll show you that I can fight on same kind of battlefield that you say you're used to. I might not be at your level yet, but I'll get there someday, and I want you to watch my journey there!_

….

Even through the visor of her black helmet, the excitement on Lan Zhao's face would've been very hard to miss. Sitting in the cockpit of her ZGMF-X08A Wraith, the Chinese Coordinator was chomping at the bit to get in on the action that was playing out in front of her. It wasn't a hunger for battle that was at work here; it was her desire to finally meet the four legendary pilots that had come over from Heero's old world to the Cosmic Era.

_So close, and yet so far_, she thought, _I know the Wraith is a perfect machine for forward recon, but still… I'm pretty sure Shemei gave me this assignment just to torture me. She can really be an evil genius when she puts her mind to it._

To be fair, Lan wasn't the only one with orders to observe the battle for now. Adaline and Priscilla were out there with her, and all three girls had their Wraiths' Mirage Colloid stealth systems activated. They had arrived a little while ago, having launched early from the _Dominion_, and had taken up positions on the opposite side of the ruins from where the main clash was taking place. All three young women were sending data back to the stolen battleship so that when it arrived it would be able to act immediately and effectively.

_Not just the battleship_, she thought, _Shemei, La Flaga, the Wolf… they'll be counting on the data that we send them when they launch their mobile suits. What we're doing's important, I know, but still… damn it, I want to get in there!_

She could hardly take her eyes off the five Gundams as they continued to lead the charge towards the ruins of Junius Seven. Heero Yuy was as impressive as ever, if not more so thanks to the upgrades that Wing Zero Albion had at its disposal, but Lan had seen him in action before. He wasn't exactly old news, but he was familiar, known territory, and it was the newcomers to the Cosmic Era that really had Lan hot and bothered.

It was small wonder that the colonies of Heero's old world had chosen these five young men to serve as their agents of rebellion. They were utterly dominating the renegades with their upgraded Gundams, and their skills were beyond impressive. They truly were a group of one-man-armies, the exact kind of soldiers you would want fighting for you when you were up against nothing less than the might of the world.

She'd read the dossiers provided by Heero, but she knew that he had held back on the personal details of each pilot. Lan was fine with that and respected how Heero was being mindful of his old friends' privacy, but there was still so much that she wanted to learn about them. This battle would be as good as any place to start; there was much one could discover about someone when they fought alongside them.

Deathscythe Omega, Heavyarms Arsenal, Sandrock Saladin, and Altron Custom… each Gundam was as unique as the pilot that wielded it. The mobile suits were exquisite killing machines, and Lan could hardly wait to get to know their pilots. If nothing else, the dossier photos had given her plenty to drool over.

_Come on, Shemei_, she thought, _Hurry up and get here! We've got a front row seat to one hell of a show, but I want to get up on the stage! I'm sure Adaline and Priscilla feel the same way, and if you were here I bet you would too._

….

"Shemei," said Eric, "are you sure you're ready for this?"

Shemei sighed. "Eric, for the third time, _yes_, I'm ready. Come on, don't you trust me?"

Her husband nodded, though he still looked nervous. "I do, you know that. It's just… this machine… you know I don't like the system on it."

The two of them were down in the hangar, both clad in black flight suits, and were floating right in front of her mobile suit. The _Dominion _would be arriving at the battlefield quite soon, and her mobile suit pilots were preparing themselves for deployment.

Shemei reached out and touched his cheek. "I know, dear. You were with me every step of the way as I trained to master this mobile suit, so you know how hard it was to get a handle on this thing's system. It wasn't a picnic, but I've finally got this thing down. Eric, I need you to believe in me now. Otherwise how am I supposed to believe in myself?"

Her husband put a hand on her shoulder. "I've always believed in you, you know that. This thing just makes me… uneasy."

Shemei smiled. "Well, I can't blame you for that. Still, we both knew this day would come. It's time, Eric. Do you have my back?"

Eric smiled and kissed her. "Always, Shemei."

Shemei nodded. "Good. Let's get to it, then. I love you, Wolfie."

He chuckled at her affectionate nickname for him. "I love you too, Valkyrie."

She watched as he floated off towards his mobile suit, the black and dark blue ZGMF-600 CCM GuAIZ Werewolf he'd stolen from ZAFT during the last war. Next to his machine was Mu La Flaga's blue and white Tallgeese Kai, and the Valkyrie knew that the Hawk of Endymion was already inside that mobile suit. Those were the only other mobile suits in the hangar since the three Wraiths had already deployed, and Shemei couldn't wait to catch up to her girls.

Shemei looked up at her fearsome machine and smirked. "All right, you demon. Let's go raise some hell."

She climbed into the cockpit of her mobile suit and closed the hatch. The Valkyrie strapped herself in and powered up her machine. The main display flashed with golden light, and then a numerical designation appeared on the screen followed by a name and an ominous inscription.

_OZ-13MSR_

_ Gundam Epyon Revenant._

_ Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword._

_ Ain't that the truth_, she thought, _but I don't plan on dying anytime soon! Come on, you mechanical devil, let's get out there and drag these sons of bitches down to hell!_

….

"Well, now," said Colonel Nazara as he watched the battle continue to unfold on his screen, "That _is _interesting. I knew the Demon would be here, but the _Archangel_… that was unexpected."

_Unexpected _and _troublesome_, he thought, _It was formidable enough in the last war, and it appears to have been upgraded since the final battle. Plus it has new mobile suits, along with the Freedom… the traitors have been busy. It looks like we may have to make our move ahead of schedule._

He was sitting in the cockpit of the Nosferatu, which was still in the hangar of the _Girty Lue_ along with the rest of the warship's mobile suits. The vessel's mobile suit complement had been restocked before it had made its way undetected to the ruins of Junius Seven. Two of those new machines belonged to the Extended that had been sent over to replace those he'd lost. Their names were Dwayne and Joseph, and the Colonel wondered if these two would serve any better than their predecessors had. Their skills were promising, but then again those of the other Extended that had served on the _Girty Lue _had been too, and that had not been nearly enough to save them once Wing Zero and its companions had taken the field.

The two mobile suits that Dwayne and Joseph had been given were not exactly new models, but they were formidable when compared to standard mass production units. They were Strike-Avengers, mobile suits that had been developed and deployed during the last war as upgraded versions of the original Strike constructed at Heliopolis. Both would be utilizing the Sword Launcher augmentation pack, which combined anti-ship sword of the Sword Strike with the Agni Hyper Impulse Cannon of the Launcher Strike to create a configuration that could be well utilized in both close and long-range combat. When combined with the improved batteries and engines of the Strike-Avenger it made for a formidable front line unit, and the Extended's enhanced abilities would make it even deadlier, but Nazara still had his doubts.

_The Sword Launcher pack's nothing more than a pale mockery of Wing Zero_, he thought grimly, _and one that Heero Yuy soundly defeated in the last war. The four Dagger Ls that were sent over as well aren't exactly machines that Wing Zero's had trouble with recently, either. Djibril, you didn't exactly set me up for success here… although I suppose since my mission isn't actually to fight against Wing Zero here I may still be able to accomplish our objective._

That objective was rather complicated. The idea of the mission was to perform a partial sabotage of ZAFT's Operation Redemption, disabling some of the drills in order to ensure that sufficient portions of Junius Seven were able to fall to Earth and inflict sufficient damage while at the same time preventing all-out Armageddon. LOGOS saw the colony drop as an ideal crisis, a pretext to whip up a major frenzy on Earth and start a new war against the PLANTs, but they needed Earth to be reasonably intact for both practical and sentimental reasons. The slogan of Blue Cosmos was 'For the preservation of our blue and pure world', after all, and allowing the catastrophe that would be the bulk of the ruins of Junius Seven impacting the Earth and the subsequent apocalypse was hardly in keeping with that motto. Balance and timing were the keys to success in this mission.

Based on the data that he was getting from the _Girty Lue_, the Colonel knew that he would have to accelerate the operation if it were still to succeed. Thanks to the combined intervention of Wing Zero's team and the traitors on the _Archangel_, ZAFT's Task Force Aurora was now starting the landing phase of their mission. Even with the renegades taking up positions amid the ruins they would not be able to stop ZAFT from setting up their drills, especially with Heero Yuy and his comrades running amok on the battlefield. They would need a little help, and that was what Nazara was here to provide. The irony of agents of Blue Cosmos aiding the remnants of Patrick Zala's radical faction was hardly lost on him. Such cooperation, however covert, might not sit well with some of the higher ups of LOGOS and Blue Cosmos, but Nazara wasn't particularly bothered by it. The ends justified the means, after all, and this was an ideal opportunity to spark the war that they so dearly longed for.

It was time to intervene. The _Girty Lue _was ideally placed to launch her operation. She was positioned on the opposite side of the ruins from where the main battle was taking place, just behind the scattered _Laurasia_-class frigates that the renegades had positioned there in order to fend off or at least slow down a flank attack. Of course, the fact that the _Girty Lue _had made it past them meant that they had already failed in that task even if they did not know it, but fortunately for them Nazara did not plan on stabbing them in the back. The Nosferatu, Gaia, Ronin, and one of the Strike-Avengers were already in position on the battleship's four mobile suit launch catapults, and the rest of the vessel's machines would be ready to follow them shortly.

There was only one problem with the plan; the launch of the mobile suits would briefly expose the _Girty Lue_. The Mirage Colloid would remain activated, but it would be partially disrupted when the hangar doors opened and the mobile suits took off. Not only would this result in a partial visual distortion that anyone nearby could see, but there would be a blip showing up on enemy sensors as well. It would be small, and if all nine mobile suits were able to launch quickly enough it would not be on scopes for long, but it would be there regardless, and someone in the right place at the right time could potentially take advantage of it. It was an unavoidable risk, but the odds of anyone on this chaotic battlefield actually making a strike on the _Girty Lue _during that small window were quite remote.

Nazara contacted the bridge. "Captain Lee, open the hatches."

"Understood," the ship's Captain replied, "Good hunting, Colonel."

Nazara didn't both to respond. His focus was solely on the main monitor as he saw the front doors begin to open up. He glanced at the launch indicator in the upper right corner, and as soon as the doors were all the way opened it switched from red to green.

"Nosferatu," said the _Girty Lue_'s combat flight controller, "You're clear for launch!"

The Colonel nodded. "Nazara, launching!"

The Nosferatu shot out of the battleship, along with the Gaia, Ronin and one of the Strike-Avengers. As soon as he was clear of the _Girty Lue _Colonel Nazara banked towards the ruins of Junius Seven, and the other mobile suits quickly moved to form up with him.

Checking his sensors, the Colonel saw the nearby renegade frigates already beginning to react, but he was unconcerned. The _Girty Lue _only had five more mobile suits to deploy, and four of those would be coming out shortly. After they and the last machine cleared the ship the vessel would once again be fully concealed and the renegades wouldn't have a clue where to look for them. More to the point, they wouldn't even bother engaging Nazara's units once they saw that he was gunning for the ZAFT drills.

A few seconds later he saw the next four mobile suits, one Strike-Avenger and three Dagger Ls, fly out of the ship. Nazara smiled. All that remained was that last Dagger L and then the battleship would be in the clear.

Soon enough, the last Dagger L left the battleship, and the Colonel was about to breathe a sigh of relief…

…only for his eyes to widen in shock beneath his mask as a storm of eighteen missiles appeared from out of nowhere and slammed into the _Girty Lue_ before her cloak could completely reengage.

"What the hell?" he snarled, looking around frantically for the source of the missiles.

The warheads had been relatively small, not nearly enough to put a battleship as tough as the _Girty Lue _out of action, but then again they didn't have to be. Sure enough, Nazara saw that the impacts had damaged the Mirage Colloid system to the point that it was forced to deactivate, revealing the battleship for all to see. At the same time there was still no sign of whoever had fired the missiles, and Nazara realized that the missiles that had been fired at the ship were of a _very _familiar design.

As the _Girty Lue_'s cloak failed another volley of eighteen missiles was unleashed, once again from three invisible sources. A series of explosions ripped across the battleship as CIWS and missile launchers were destroyed, and Nazara saw that this second volley had also knocked out the top two Gottfried heavy beam cannons. The Colonel quickly froze an image of one of the missiles on his monitor and zoomed in on it. His eyes narrowed beneath his mask as his suspicions were confirmed.

_Lancer Dart missiles._

Only two types of mobile suits used those particular munitions, and only one of the first type and three of the second type had been built in the last war. The single unit from the first class had been confirmed destroyed, while the three from the second had disappeared at the end of the war.

_They're here_, he thought grimly, quickly checking his sensors, _which means that _she _is not far behind._

As the _Girty Lue _opened up with wild fire from its undamaged CIWS and missile launchers, Nazara saw the ZGMF-X08A Wraiths of the Valkyrie Team decloak and activate their black and red Phase Shift Armor. What few bullets from the battleship found their marks were deflected by the armor, and if any missiles came close to hitting the three mobile suits they were quickly shot down by beam rifle and railgun fire. The three stolen ZAFT mobile suits danced around the _Girty Lue_, peppering the battleship with particle beams and railgun rounds. While it would take far more than potshots from the Valkyrie's three subordinates to take the warship down, the attacks were doing damage, taking out more of the vessels anti-air weaponry and hitting its engines.

Nazara's sensors were already going wild, but now a fresh set of beeping caused him to recheck the display. His eyes widened as a new, much larger contact appeared, but before he could zero in on it he saw two crimson pillars of energy rip through space and slam into the _Girty Lue_. Even the battleship's tough armor was no match for the power of the twin positron blasts, and the vessel was ripped in half by a spectacular fireball.

"You've _got _to be kidding me!" Nazara growled, "Is this some kind of joke?"

If this was a jest of fate, the Colonel certainly wasn't laughing. Appearing on his screen, in a display of grand irony, was a battleship. It had clearly been upgraded it, but there was no mistaking that it was a member of the _Archangel_-class.

A _black Archangel_-class battleship.

The _Dominion_.

….

"Direct hit!" said the sensor officer, "Bogey One is confirmed destroyed!"

_Talk about a lucky break_, thought Natarle with a smile, _Sure, we just lost any hope of capturing it and getting access to its data banks, but given what's at stake here we just can't afford to have that ship running around this battlefield causing trouble._

The attack would not have been possible were it not for a combination of skill, quick thinking, and a considerable amount of luck. When Bogey One had begun launching its mobile suits it had unwittingly done so right in the vicinity of the three cloaked Wraiths. Adaline had taken the lead, sending the data to the _Dominion _while simultaneously ambushing Bogey One with Lan and Priscilla. Their missile attacks had completely knocked out the ship's Mirage Colloid, and since Natarle's ship had just arrived at the battlefield it was in an ideal position to deal a decisive blow against the battleship.

She could see the nine mobile suits that had launched from Bogey One still rushing towards the ruins of Junius Seven. Whatever plan they had was apparently still ago even without their battleship, and while Natarle had no idea what their objective might be she doubted it involved helping out Terminal or ZAFT.

"Ma'am!" cried the sensor operator, "The renegade warships on our side of the ruins are reorienting towards us!"

"What about their mobile suits?" asked Natarle.

"They're splitting up," the officer replied, "Some are heading for the ruins. Others are preparing to engage us."

_I thought that'd be the case_, she mused, _They want to make sure one way or the other that the ruins keep falling and need to reinforce their units on the other side thanks to the Gundam pilots, but at the same time they want to stall us here, too._

Fortunately the _Dominion _was more than prepared to take them on. The black battleship had the undergone the same upgrades as the _Archangel_, and that included the fearsome Buster Cannon. Also, only half of the ship's powerful mobile suits had taken off, and Natarle knew that it was time for the rest of her machines to get into the fight.

"Launch our remaining mobile suits!" she ordered, "Valkyrie and Hawk will advance while Wolf remains as our guard. Have the Wraiths move forward; they're to engage the renegade mobile suits until their leader joins them, then they can fight as she deems fit."

"Aye, Captain!" the ship's mobile suit flight controller replied.

"Weapons," she said, "target the nearest frigate and fire at will!"

"Yes, ma'am!" yelled her chief gunnery officer.

_All right_, she thought, _Time to show the world what we can do!_

….

Her hands tightly gripping the controls, Shemei had an eager smile on her face as she watched the hangar doors open. At long last she'd get to put her new Gundam through a trial by fire, and a high stakes one to boot. She may not have prayed for this particular battle, but the last thing she would ever do was shy away from it.

She saw the launch indicator flip from red to green, and the voice of the _Dominion_'s flight controller came over the radio. "Valkyrie, you are clear for launch!"

Shemei nodded. "Gundam Epyon Revenant, launching!"

Her mobile suit shot out of the starboard leg of the _Dominion_, revealing itself to the Cosmic Era in all its unholy glory. Like its predecessor, it was a true Gundam by the standards of Heero's old world in that its hull was made of Gundanium alloy. Said hull bore a crimson and black paintjob, which when combined with its menacing silhouette worked wonders for its intimidation factor. Mounted on its chest was a green Search Eye exactly like the one that Wing Zero Albion was equipped with.

Also like Wing Zero Albion, the Gundam's propulsion system had been considerably upgraded from that of the original model. Where once the mobile suit had two wings, now there were four. They followed the basic layout of the Albion's wings; a smaller inner pair and a larger outer pair. However, unlike the angelic design of the Albion's wings, these were of a much more demonic design and were blood red, making the mobile suit look nothing less like a devil free from Hell and ready to wreak utter carnage on the battlefield. The inner wings contained the conventional thrusters and the modified Hyper Jammer ECM Suite for distorting the Gundam's sensor profile, while the outer wings housed DSX-1 Shakō-tai energy shield generators and a Voiture Lumiere electromagnetic-light-wave propulsion system. In contrast to Wing Zero Albion's blue energy shields and light waves, the barriers and waves generated by Gundam Epyon Revenant were scarlet.

Like its predecessor, the Gundam was built as a dueling mobile suit, and its armaments reflected that quite well. With the flick of a switch, the Gundam's beam sword held in the mobile suit's right hand sprang to life in a fountain of green light. The energy blade was larger than those of conventional beam sabers, and unlike the melee weapons used on most mobile suits the handle for the beam sword was directly linked to the Gundam by means of a long and flexible cord. This allowed Shemei to funnel additional energy to the blade straight from the reactor, increasing both its power and length as the situation demanded. It could cut through incredibly thick armor, and the Valkyrie was looking forward to putting the weapon through its paces.

The beam sword may have been the Gundam's primary weapon, but it wasn't the only one. Mounted on the mobile suit's left forearm was a red and black shield, and within that shield was the unit's fearsome Heat Rod, a superheated whip that was capable of melting through armor and ripping machines apart. The control system for the Heat Rod had been refined and improved over the previous model, allowing it to be used with greater precision. At the same time, this Heat Rod was half again longer than the weapon used by its predecessor, enabling the wielder to take down more mobile suits with a single attack. Rounding out the mobile suit's weapons were two head-mounted Igelstellung 75mm CIWS. While at first glance such weapons may have appeared to go against the dueling mentality that the mobile suit had been designed around, Shemei didn't really feel as if that was the case due to the fact that the guns were primarily meant to shoot down incoming missiles.

Gunning her engines, Shemei rocketed away from the _Dominion_ on a wave of blue thruster fire and crimson light. Checking her display, she saw a blue and white mobile suit flying out of the black battleship's left leg; Mu La Flaga's Tallgeese Kai. The unit's batteries had been upgraded since the last war for improved power efficiency and operating time, but beyond that the machine hadn't changed since the last war. The mobile suit shot forward as it raced to catch up with Shemei and engage the enemy. La Flaga's machine may not have been quite as fast as Shemei's, but for a battery powered mobile suit it was still quite the speed demon, and with the Hawk of Endymion at the controls its maneuverability was almost unrivaled.

A few seconds later the last mobile suit flew out of the _Dominion_; her husband's black and dark blue GuAIZ Werewolf. The machine quickly took up position just over the battleship, ready to intercept any mobile suits that tried to attack.

Shemei could feel Epyon Revenant's ZERO System egging her on, urging her to get into the thick of the action. The Valkyrie smirked; she didn't need to be told twice.

_You want a fight, Epyon?_, she thought, _Don't worry, you'll get one!_

The mobile suit's unique operating system was unlike anything Shemei had ever encountered before. Her first taste of it in a simulator trial over a year ago had not gone well; the Gundam's variation of the ZERO System had completely taken control within minutes, and if she'd been on a real battlefield she knew that she would've slaughtered friend and foe alike. The mental discipline required to rein in such a beast was incredible, and her respect for Heero had increased tenfold once she'd realized that he'd been fighting with the original version of the system since well before arriving in the Cosmic Era. Were it not for his guidance and the support of Eric and their friends Shemei doubted that she would ever have gotten a handle on it. The key breakthrough had come once she'd truly grasped the nature of Epyon Revenant's ZERO System, thanks in no small part to Heero telling her about the man who had overseen its construction and what he had envisioned.

_"Epyon was designed by Treize as a dueling mobile suit," said Heero, "but there's more to it than that. When Treize modified the ZERO System he made sure his own ideals were embedded in it. Epyon's ZERO System is built around Treize's belief that mankind needs to witness the full brutality of war in order to truly have a chance to forge a lasting peace. The mobile suit's armaments are meant to force the pilot to put themselves in the center of that brutality; the beam sword and Heat Rod compel the pilot to fight very aggressively due to the lack of long range weaponry. The pilot has to channel that aggression in the pursuit of total victory. You have to have absolute clarity of purpose when you fight; you can't doubt for a second who your enemies are what you have to do to defeat them. The instant you do that, you give the System the opening it needs to take control."_

_ That actually goes a long way towards explaining why Treize wanted the mobile suit to appear so demonic_, thought Shemei, _In a way, for a pilot to really master it they have to embrace something very dark inside them; the thrill of battle. The pilot has to take the excitement that they get from a fight and use it to inflict maximum damage on the enemy. At the same time the pilot has to recognize that they're essentially channeling something wrong, even evil, in the pursuit of their goals. If they can't accept their role as a necessary evil and keep that in perspective then they don't _deserve _to pilot the Epyon. The System will recognize them as unworthy and reject them, turning them into nothing more than a mass murderer. This Gundam truly _is _a demon, and it's up to the pilot's strength of will to turn that demon's power towards a noble end._

**Start "Gensou no Kekkai / Necrofantasia"**

Up ahead she saw a group of GINNs moving to intercept her. Behind them was one of the seven frigates the renegades had positioned on this side of the colony. Shemei decided that they would be her first targets.

The enemy mobile suits opened up with their beam rifles, but Shemei had started going evasive the moment they'd raised their weapons. Their particle beams flew through the space around her, but none found their marks. The Valkyrie raced to close the gap, and within seconds she was upon them.

A lightning-fast slash from her beam sword sliced a GINN in half. Another tried to cut her down, but she swiftly blocked the attack before countering and stabbing it through the cockpit. Shemei then unleashed her Heat Rod. The red-hot whip whirled around her and ripped two GINNs to shreds. She pulled back to avoid a particle beam before turning on the mobile suit that had fired the shot and cutting it down with her emerald blade.

_You're next_, she thought as she raced towards the frigate.

The warship poured particle beam and railgun fire at her. As she got closer the ship's CIWS joined in, but no matter what the vessel unleashed it couldn't touch her. Making her final charge, she stabbed her beam sword through the bridge. As she made contact she surged power through the blade from the mobile suit's reactor. The energy sword rapidly extended inside the ship and gutted the vessel.

_One down_, she thought, _and six more to go back here!_

Six quickly became five as the _Dominion _cut loose with her Gottfrieds, Valiants and Xiphias railguns, along with her Sledgehammer anti-ship missiles. The barrage was as precise as it was lethal, and the renegade _Laurasia_-class frigate was consumed by fire.

At the same time the _Dominion _was making her strike, Shemei saw her three girls ripping apart another frigate. The trio of Wraiths was dancing around the ship, evading its anti-air fire with almost contemptuous ease. As they did so they continued to hammer it with beam rifle and railgun fire until the ship crumbled under their withering and relentless assault.

Five was now four, but even that number would not last long. The Hawk of Endymion was zeroing in on another frigate at breakneck speed. A quartet of GINNs had moved to intercept the Tallgeese Kai, but even their improved mobility was nothing before the phenomenal agility of the blue and white machine. What few shots from their beam rifles came close to the mobile suit were deflected by the unit's four Planet Defensors before Mu La Flaga made his counterattack. Two GINNs fell mere seconds apart from each other, the victims of precise beam rifle shots to their cockpits. Before the last two could react the Hawk of Endymion was already in melee range, and they swiftly fell to quick slashes from La Flaga's beam saber. Then the Tallgeese Kai moved in on the frigate, weaving its way through a barrage of particle beams, railgun rounds, bullets, and missiles as the stolen warship opened up with everything it had in an all-out attempt to take down the famous pilot.

It wasn't nearly enough to stop the Hawk. Mu La Flaga wasted no time in going in for the kill, striking the two front 125mm cannons with his beam rifle before taking a shot at the bridge. The command center was engulfed in fire while the Hawk proceeded to take out the warships heavy weapons and then attack its engines. Mere seconds later the warship was torn apart by a vicious explosion.

_All right!_, thought Shemei as she raced to join her girls, _Three down back here, and three more to go! Looks like the enemy's frontal force isn't fairing so well either._

That was a considerable understatement. While ZAFT's Task Force Aurora was battered and bloodied it was still in the fight, and the fire it was pouring at the renegade's forward warships had taken down two frigates, although it was at the cost of another _Nazca_-class destroyer. The rest of the twelve ZAFT warships on the field, with the exception of the battleship _Minerva_, were sporting moderate to severe damage, but whoever their commander was seemed determined to keep them in the fight. Normally Shemei might object to that, but given just how high the stakes were in this battle she knew that withdrawal was not an option.

The Valkyrie was impressed as she saw the _Minerva _take down a frigate with a combination of her beam turrets, triple cannon, and missile launchers. The prototype ZAFT warship may not have been as powerful as the upgraded _Archangel _or _Dominion_, and her crew might have been relatively new, but there was no denying that the vessel was holding her own in this fight. The same went for her mobile suits; Impulse, the two ZAKU Warriors, and the ZAKU Phantom that had launched from the ship were at the front of the ZAFT squadrons, and for pilots who'd only had their first taste of combat days ago were doing fairly well on this chaotic battlefield.

As well as they were performing, though, Shemei knew that by far and away the stars of this show were the five Gundam pilots. Heero Yuy was right at the center of it, ripping into the renegade fleet with the full might of Wing Zero Albion. A brilliant yellow flash ripped across space as his fearsome rifle took down a frigate, and mere seconds later a GINN that tried to take him on up close found itself impaled on the Gundam's emerald beam saber. The other four machines were nothing to sneeze at either. Deathscythe Omega, Sandrock Saladin, and Altron Custom were ripping into renegade mobile suits up close while Heavyarms Arsenal was pounding the enemy from a distance with bullets, beams, and missiles. It was thanks in large part to their efforts that the surviving mobile suits of Task Force Aurora were landing on the ruins of Junius Seven in earnest now, securing spaces for them to plant their drills.

Of course, the other factor in Task Force Aurora's progress was continuing to make itself felt on this battlefield. Fire ripped from the _Archangel_'s Gottfrieds, Valiants, Xiphias, and missile launchers as the white warship continued to pound the renegade warships. Another frigate succumbed to fire from the battleship, leaving just thirteen of the _Laurasia_-class vessels to continue the fight. Murrue Ramius was on a role, and with the renegades' attention split between her, her mobile suits, the Gundam pilots, and Task Force Aurora there was no way that the remnants of Patrick Zala's radical faction could concentrate fire against her.

The _Archangel_'s mobile suits were making the lives of the renegades even more miserable than they already were. Andrew and Aisha Waltfeld were hanging back with the battleship to intercept any GINNs that tried to attack the vessel, but given just how much of a beating the renegades were taking only a few isolated mobile suits had been able to make an attempt to strike the warship, and they were swiftly dealt with by the Desert Tiger and the Tigress. As for the mobile suits on the offensive, Kira Yamato was leading the charge in the Freedom. The stolen ZAFT mobile suit cut loose with its considerable artillery, ripping apart a _Laurasia_-class frigate's main weaponry. The vessel was quickly finished off by precise beam rifle fire from Yzak Joule's Mercurius Kai. Mere seconds later the crimson Gundam deployed its Planet Defensors to block beam rifle fire from a GINN before Yzak rushed in and impaled the mobile suit on his yellow beam saber. Rounding out the group was Dearka Elsman and his Vayeate Kai, and with a blast of his heavy Beam Cannon he turned a renegade frigate into a fireball.

_Looks like the others have things well in hand on their end_, she thought, _I need to focus on mine!_

The remaining three renegade frigates of the rear guard had formed a final defense line between the _Dominion_, her mobile suits, and the ruins of the colony. A handful of GINNs were with them, but the majority of the surviving renegade mobile suits had already pulled back to the ruins themselves to make their last stand. Shemei saw her girls going for the lead frigate, and she gunned her engines to catch up with them.

"Room for one more?" she asked as she formed up with them.

"Shemei!" cried Adaline.

"What took you so long?" Lan teased.

"Good to have you here, boss!" said Priscilla.

Shemei smiled. It had taken a lot of work to get her girls to stop using her old ZAFT rank of Commander. Old habits did not die easily, but with considerable effort they'd finally managed to kick this one, much to the Valkyrie's pleasure.

"Looks like you three jumped into quite the party!" said Shemei, "Don't worry, ladies, your chaperone's here now!"

"Hey!" said Adaline, "We can handle ourselves!"

"That was mean!" said Lan.

"Cheap shot, boss!" Priscilla pouted.

Shemei smirked; she knew just how to tease her girls, and they knew just how to take it. It was one of the many benefits that came with working together for so many years now.

"All right, all right," she said, "Come on, girls, let's mop these saps up and get to that colony. After all, there're some very special boys waiting for us over there!"

"Damn right there are!" said Lan, and Shemei was sure that the Chinese Coordinator wanted nothing more than to make a beeline for the Gundam pilots.

"I'll say," Adaline chimed in, "Those five have really been tearing it up over there!"

"No kidding," said Priscilla, "They're on a roll."

"Indeed," said Shemei with a grin, "but this isn't just their show. Come on, girls; let's show the boys what we've got!"

"Roger that!" all three replied as one.

….

_Quite the entrance, Natarle_, thought Heero as he observed the advance of the _Dominion _and her mobile suits, _and the same goes for you, Shemei. Very well played._

While the Gundam pilot had anticipated Bogey One showing up on the battlefield at some point in this fight, but with its Mirage Colloid system exactly where that would be had been hard to pin down. Natarle had been given a golden opportunity when the Valkyrie's three subordinates had caught the mysterious battleship as it had been launching its mobile suits, and she had taken full advantage of it. Bogey One's machines might still be racing for the colony, but the battleship was out of the fight, and Heero would chalk that up as a win. It would've been nice to capture it and get access to whatever data it held, but given the chaotic battle they were in the middle of and the sheer stakes involved Heero certainly wouldn't complain about how Natarle had so efficiently destroyed the vessel.

Heero knew it wouldn't take Shemei and her girls long to break through the enemy's final line and get to the ruins. Three _Laurasia_-class frigates and a handful of upgraded GINNs were a poor match indeed for the Gundam Epyon Revenant and the three Wraiths. The demise of the renegades on that side of the colony would be swift in coming.

However, by the time the Valkyrie and her subordinates mopped up those frigates and GINNs Heero knew that the mobile suits launched from Bogey One would already be on the ruins. Heero didn't know what their endgame was, but he had a feeling it wasn't to help ZAFT stop the colony from falling.

Taking a shot at a frigate with the Twin Buster Rifle and annihilating the vessel, Heero quickly checked the positions of his fellow Gundam pilots as he considered his next move. Quatre and Duo had joined the forward Task Force Aurora mobile suit teams down on the surface of the colony and were working to clear out places to plant the drills. Trowa was above them acting as a one-man anti-air battery, taking down any GINNs that tried to drop in on them. Wufei had been hunting down and picking off mobile suits amidst the surviving frigates, but with the arrival of Bogey One's mobile suits he seemed to shift his priorities; he was making a beeline for their old adversaries from their previous battles.

_That's where I should go too_, he thought, _The renegades' lines are shattered; Murrue and Task Force Aurora should be able to deal with what's left here. The real fighting's on the surface now, and if those mobile suits from before manage to interfere they could cause a lot of trouble._

Gunning his engines, Heero rocketed across the battlefield. Raising his rifle, Heero quickly cut loose with a blast of golden-yellow hellfire. The shot was aimed at the violet mobile suit with the gunbarrel drones and the Gaia, but at this distance both units were able to evade the blast. It certainly grabbed their attention, though, and the former unit was already reorienting itself to face Wing Zero Albion. With the exception of that unit and the black and red mobile suit with the beam katana, the rest of the machines that had launched from Bogey One remained on course for the surface of the ruins.

_The others will have to deal with them_, Heero thought, _I have my target, and this time he's not getting away!_

His foe certainly seemed to welcome a rematch. The violet mobile suit was gunning its engines and racing towards him at full throttle. For a moment Heero thought the machine with the beam katana would join it for a two-on-one clash, but then the Gundam pilot realized that the mobile suit in question had a slightly different vector and it didn't take long to figure out where it was heading.

_He's all yours, Wufei._

Indeed, a quick glance showed Heero that the Gundam pilot from L5 was rushing towards the black and red mobile suit as fast as Altron Custom's engines could carry him. Wufei was clearly eager for another round, and that wasn't surprising; if someone had managed to hold their own against him in the past, Heero knew that Wufei would stop at nothing until he had a rematch and the chance to prove his skills to be superior.

Heero quickly returned his focus to his own impending duel, and it wasn't a moment too soon. The violet machine approaching him had already released its gunbarrel drones and was opening fire with the, its beam rifle, and its two linear guns. The Gundam pilot immediately went evasive and deployed his energy shields to block the shots that he couldn't dodge. It was a thick barrage, but Heero was able to push forward, and he countered with a shot from the Twin Buster Rifle.

The blast ripped through space, but just like before the enemy was able to dodge the shot. Heero's foe was swift in their response, once again filling space with particle beams and linear gun slugs. Gunning his engines, Heero swiftly closed the gap and lashed out with his beam saber. The enemy was able to deflect his opening slash and swiftly counter, but Heero was able to parry their return strike and make one of his own. A dance of blades quickly unfolded as the Gundam and the violet machine traded blow after blow, neither one able to land a hit.

_He's moving better than last time_, Heero thought as they continued their exchange, _Every duel with me that he survives gives him greater insight into how I fight. Granted, that cuts both ways, but still… his gunbarrels make him a tricky opponent._

The Gundam pilot was forced to pull back as his foe tried to catch him in crossfire with his four gunbarrel drones. As he put some space between himself and his enemy Heero raised the Twin Buster Rifle again and opened fire, but his adversary was able to dive and avoid the shot. The move did give Heero a temporary respite from the gunbarrel drones though, and he used that to charge right back in for another beam saber exchange.

He led with a hard overhand strike, but the enemy was able to deflect it. His foe then countered with a diagonal slash that Heero parried before countering with a thrust. The enemy managed to redirect the attack before responding with a thrust of their own, but Heero was able to sideslip the strike. Heero then gunned his engines and climbed as his adversary brought their gunbarrel drones to bear again, forcing him to break off in order to avoid getting caught in their web of fire.

_That's right_, he thought, _keep focusing on me. As long as you're fighting me, you're not interfering with the rest of the battle._

Said battle was definitely going poorly for the renegades now. On the far side of the colony the Valkyrie and her subordinates were ripping into the final line of frigates and mobile suits between them and the ruins. The three Wraiths were concentrating their fire on a single ship, tearing apart its defenses before the Epyon Revenant dived in for the killing strike, impaling the vessel through the bridge and extending its beam sword to maul the warship from the inside out.

A second frigate quickly fell to fire from the _Dominion_'s formidable arsenal. A pair of GINNs attempted to attack the black battleship, but they were quickly intercepted by Eric Bristow and his GuAIZ Werewolf. The stolen ZAFT mobile suit impaled one machine on its violet beam claws before shredding the second unit with a hail of emerald bolts from its Beam Gatlings.

The third and final frigate on the far side of the colony now found itself and its handful of GINNs to be the targets of the _Dominion _and its mobile suits. Mu La Flaga made the first move, picking off one GINN with his beam rifle before impaling another with his violet blade. Shemei was next, shredding a third GINN with her Heat Rod before swooping in on the frigate and mauling its beam cannons with her sword. Lan downed the fourth and final GINN protecting the frigate with her Wraith's railguns before joining Adaline and Priscilla in pounding the ship with the beam rifles mounted in their Trikeros shields. The deathblow came when the frigate was hit by a salvo from the _Dominion_'s Gottfried beam cannons, Valiant linear cannons, and Xiphias railguns. The warship crumpled under the barrage before an internal explosion ripped the vessel apart. Now the way was clear for Natarle and her forces to launch a full assault on the renegade forces operating on the ruins of Junius Seven.

Things weren't much better for the renegade forces on the side of the colony where the majority of the battle was unfolding. The enemy had now pulled back all of their surviving mobile suits to the ruins in an attempt to disrupt Task Force Aurora's drilling operations, but while it might mean a harder fight on the surface it also meant that their remaining seven frigates were now operating completely without mobile suit support. In modern warfare this was a virtual death sentence for any ship, and the combined forces facing the renegades were carrying out that sentence in earnest.

Twin pillars of crimson fire flew forth as the _Archangel _unleashed her Lohengrins. The two positron blasts slammed into a frigate and turned the ship into a fireball. Murrue's attack was swiftly followed by a barrage from the Freedom's artillery, which quickly stripped a frigate of its heavy weaponry. Kira's bombardment was quickly succeeded by a volley of beam rifle fire from Yzak's Mercurius Kai, further mauling the targeted ship. Yzak then swooped in to make his coup de grace, stabbing his yellow beam saber through the frigate's bridge. A blast of yellow energy from the heavy Beam Cannon of Dearka's Vayeate Kai washed over another renegade warship and obliterated it.

Another blast of crimson energy, this time from the _Minerva_'s positron cannon, ripped a frigate to shreds. Now there were only three of the renegade warships left, and the surviving ten destroyers and the cruiser _Freya _of Task Force Aurora were pounding away at them, with the _Minerva _joining them in the bombardment. The trio of warships eventually succumbed to the ZAFT vessels' fire, but they did manage to take down one last destroyer before they were eliminated.

As Heero continued to trade fire with the gunbarrel machine he saw Athrun, Shinn, and Rey down on the surface of the colony. They were spread out but still within sight of each other in order to provide overlapping fields of fire. They were well positioned to cover the drill teams, and while they were managing to fend off attacks from the renegade GINNs Heero knew that things would get trickier for them once the mobile suits launched from Bogey One prior to its destruction joined the fray. Fortunately Duo, Trowa, and Quatre were down there with them as well, leaving Heero reasonably assured that operations down on the surface of the ruins were in good hands.

He realized that he'd missed a machine when he'd been scanning the ruins; Lunamaria's crimson Gunner ZAKU. Checking his display he quickly found the mobile suit, and was surprised to find it heading towards Wufei as Altron Custom began its clash with the black and red mobile suit wielding the beam katana.

Wufei and his foe swiftly engaged in a furious exchange of blows. Altron Custom's double-ended beam trident danced like a thing possessed, moving seamlessly from offense to defense at the blink of an eye. What was even more impressive in Heero's eyes was the fact that the black and red mobile suit was managing to match Wufei blow for blow. Its beam katana moved like lightning despite the fact that the machine wielding it was technologically inferior to Altron Custom. That spoke volumes as to the skill of whoever was piloting that machine, although Heero wondered how long they would be able to keep up such a display of fighting prowess against Wufei. The L5 native could be relentless once he commenced a duel, and Heero didn't expect him to break with that tendency any time soon.

_Lunamaria's going to get herself killed if she flies into that fight_, Heero thought as he evaded fire from his foe, _but there's nothing I can do about that right now. Hopefully Wufei will be able to keep her alive, although he'll hate playing guardian when he's in the middle of a fight like that._

In the meantime, all Heero could do was focus on his own duel. Sensing an opening, he rocketed forward, working his way through the enemy's barrage with blinding speed, propelled on a wave of blue light. He quickly made a horizontal slash with his emerald blade, only for his foe to deflect the strike on its violet saber. The enemy then struck back with a diagonal slash, but Heero was able to swiftly parry and counter with an overhand strike. His foe was able to block the blow, but this time Heero was able to press his assault. He made a quick forward thrust, and while his enemy managed to avoid most of it his emerald blade did succeed in taking out his target's left linear gun.

_That's a start_, thought Heero as he pulled back to avoid beam fire from the four gunbarrel drones, _but it's not nearly enough. This guy's still in the fight, and I need to take him down fast!_

**End "Gensou no Kekkai / Necrofantasia"**

….

_What the hell am I doing?_

That was what Lunamaria kept thinking to herself as she gained altitude, leaving the ruins of Junius Seven beneath her as she ascended towards the unfolding duel between Altron Custom and the black and red mobile suit. Her place was with her friends and comrades down on the surface of the colony, defending the drill teams as they set up their devices. Wufei was a highly skilled pilot in possession of a powerful mobile suit; he could handle himself just fine, as he had already proven in the two previous battles she'd witnessed him take part in. Logically, she knew that he didn't need her help, much as that might sting to admit.

Still, Lunamaria couldn't help but fly towards that fight. There was some overpowering need within her that she couldn't deny. It was a thirst to prove herself to this newcomer, this strange pilot who'd come into her life barely a week ago and had proceeded to leave her in doubt of everything she had every learned in her training. She wanted to demonstrate that she had the potential to fight on his level, and her desire to do so was driving her well past the point of logical arguments.

_I'm sure you don't want my help, Wufei_, she thought, _but damn it, you're getting it anyway!_

As she approached the fight she saw that he wasn't using his Dragon Fangs. She supposed that made sense given that they'd had no effect in the last battle against his foe's Phase Shift Armor. Still, Lunamaria had to wonder if part of that was also due to pride. After all, Wufei's foe only had a beam katana and its CIWS to do battle with, and from what she'd learned about him so far she wouldn't be surprised if Altron Custom's pilot was limiting himself to his melee weapon out of some sense of honor.

Whatever the reason was, it appeared that Wufei's foe was taking full advantage of the Gundam pilot limiting himself. The pilot of the black and red mobile suit was bold in his efforts, charging right in to meet the Altron Custom head on without any feints or attempts at misdirection. For his part, Wufei seemed to be returning the favor, and if the fight were taking place between just the soldiers themselves as opposed to them and their machines Lunamaria felt that the contest she was witnessing would not have looked out of place in some ancient Roman arena. Both the beam katana and the double-ended beam trident had a certain exotic air about them; there were no other beam melee weapons like them in the Cosmic Era.

They were moving incredibly fast, and for every strike one of them dished out the other always seemed to be ready with a counter. A thrust from the black and red mobile suit's beam katana was caught on one end of Wufei's beam trident before the Gundam pilot expertly twirled the weapon around and brought the other end to bear on his foe. However, his enemy managed to pull back just in the nick of time to avoid a hit, only to make another attack with an overhand strike. This time Wufei parried the blow before countering with a horizontal slash, but the attack did not connect; his adversary was able to deflect the strike and counter almost seamlessly. It was almost artful, the way offense and defense was seemingly effortlessly merged by the two combatants. They were able to alternate between one and the other at what felt like a simple flick of a switch. Their moves were beyond anything Lunamaria had witnessed from her instructors during her time at the academy; the only thing that could compare was the old footage she and her fellow trainees had been shown of duels that took place in the last war, and without fail the best of those fights had included none other than Wing Zero.

_Amazing_, she thought as she watched the fight, _It's like their mobile suits really are extensions of their bodies! Is it their operating systems? No… it's gotta be more than that!_

Lunamaria would be the first to admit that close-quarters combat was not her strongest point, but she'd done fairly well in her basic training courses. However, what she was witnessing now was leagues beyond anything she could ever imagine herself achieving. It didn't seem fair; why hadn't their instructors told them just how outclassed they would be by some of the soldiers out in the Cosmic Era? It may not have been good for the trainees' morale, but at least they would have some idea as to what they might run into out there and perhaps take some measures to prepare for it. Since Wing Zero had disappeared at the end of the war their teachers had acted like that meant Heero Yuy was gone for good, but not only was he back on the field two years later but he apparently had friends that were just as powerful as he was.

Lunamaria shook her head. It didn't matter right now how strong Wufei or any of the other Gundam pilots were. All that she cared about was proving that she could hold her own alongside them, that she had the potential to be as good as them someday.

Her eyes narrowed as she studied the latest exchange between Wufei and his foe. The two of them had developed a pattern where they would charge each other head on, engage in a series of strikes and counters, and then break off for a moment before heading right back in to go at it again. When they were close together Lunamaria knew that there was no way she could take a shot, but that moment where they broke off would give her the opening she needed.

_Come on_, she thought, her finger tensing over the trigger as she watched them attack and defend, _Come on, break, damn it!_

His double-ended beam trident whirling like an emerald tornado, Wufei launched a series of blindingly fast slashes. The enemy was able to block them, but they were pushing them back; the Gundam pilot definitely had his foe on the defensive. Lunamaria wondered if maybe she'd misread the fight. Now it seemed like Wufei might just be on the verge of landing a decisive blow.

However, mere seconds later she saw the black and red machine catch one of the slashes on its blade and smoothly deflect it. This gave the enemy the opening they needed to counter with a thrust, forcing Wufei to bring his weapon down to parry the strike. With that block Wufei was able to make a thrust of his own, but just like before his foe was able to redirect the attack. This time the black and red machine made an overhand strike. Wufei managed to block the blow, and in an instant Lunamaria knew that she was about to get her opening.

She smiled as she saw the two machines pull back, and she shifted her aim to track the black and red machine. A second later she pulled the trigger, sending a crimson stream of energy at the enemy.

Amazingly, her foe was able to dive in time to avoid the attack. Lunamaria was stunned; she'd thought for sure that her shot would catch the enemy by surprise. She didn't have long to dwell on it, though; the enemy was already charging towards her.

"Oh, crap!" she cried, readying her beam tomahawk while gunning her engines in reverse.

She thought for sure the black and red mobile suit would close the gap and strike, but before it could do so a familiar green mobile suit interposed itself between the crimson ZAKU and its foe. Lunamaria sighed with relief as she saw Wufei deflect a diagonal slash that was meant for her before pushing the black and red mobile suit back and going on the offensive.

_That was close_, she thought as she watched him and the enemy go at it in a fresh exchange of strikes, _I guess I owe him one… well, another one. This is the second time he's saved my hide._

She was surprised to see Wufei's face appear in the upper right corner of her screen as he continued to engage the black and red mobile suit. "What the hell are you doing? You should be down on the colony!"

Lunamaria glared at him, her earlier gratitude for his rescue rapidly evaporating. "Hey, I came to give you a hand!"

"I don't need help," said Wufei as he continued to exchange strikes with his foe, "I can handle this guy on my own!"

"But you could take him down faster if you had backup!" Lunamaria replied as she tried to line up another shot at the enemy.

"I don't want your help," said Wufei, "I can't fight this guy if I'm trying to protect you at the same time!"

"I don't need protecting," Lunamaria shot back, "and you're getting my help whether you like it or not!"

Wufei shook his head as he parried a diagonal slash from his foe. "Stubborn woman… just don't blame me if you get yourself killed!"

"Oh, yeah?" yelled Lunamaria, "Well, the same goes for you!"

She saw Wufei and his foe break off again, giving her the opening she needed to take another shot with her rifle. Once again a crimson blast of energy flew through space, and just like last time the black and red mobile suit managed to evade it. However, this time as it tried to charge Lunamaria it was knocked off course by one of Altron Custom's Dragon Fangs.

_Even if those things don't affect Phase Shift Armor, they still come in handy here_, she thought as she watched Wufei rush back into beam trident range, _I bet that pilot really felt that impact._

Watching Altron Custom and the black and red mobile suit go at it again up close, Lunamaria knew she had to do something to hasten this fight's end. Neither party had landed a decisive hit on the other yet, and while Wufei certainly seemed confident in his ability to ultimately defeat his foe by himself Lunamaria would rather take advantage of their numerical superiority and wrap this affair up quickly.

_Come on_, she thought, _use your head! You've got the whole arsenal of a Gunner ZAKU Warrior at your disposal. There's gotta be something you can do to help Wufei beat this guy!_

It would've been so much easier if Wufei would just agree to cooperate with her here. Unfortunately his pride was getting in the way of that, and for the life of her Lunamaria could not figure out a way to work around it. All she could do for now was take shots when she had openings and hope that one of them connected.

_He's so stubborn_, she thought, _I really don't get it…_

Of course, Lunamaria wasn't about to admit that it was her own stubbornness that had brought her here in the first place.

In that respect, she and Wufei were more alike than she cared to think about.

….

"Damn it, Luna!" yelled Shinn, "What the hell are you doing?"

He was down on the surface of the ruins along with Athrun and Rey defending the drill teams. Lunamaria was supposed to be with them, and while Shinn could say from firsthand experience that the mobile suit with the beam katana would definitely qualify as a threat to them he could also see that Wufei had that threat under control.

"Forget about her for now, Shinn," said Rey, "We have to worry about things down here."

"Rey's right," said Athrun, "Concentrate on the surface. At least Lunamaria's making sure that that guy can't come down here."

Shinn raised his shield to block incoming beam fire. The fighting on the surface of the ruins was definitely more intense than the scattered clashes going on up above. The renegades were now severely reduced in numbers, but they were making up for it by taking advantage of the colony's terrain. There was plenty of cover, and the enemy was using that to wage a furious defense. The mobile suits of Task Force Aurora were forced to split their focus between protecting the drill teams and rooting out the surviving renegades one by one. It was a lengthy affair, and it was one that Shinn knew that they did not have time for.

They did have some help, though, in the form of the Gundams Deathscythe Omega, Heavyarms Arsenal, and Sandrock Saladin. Duo, Trowa, and Quatre had proven to be absolutely invaluable in the efforts to defend the drill teams and give them the time and space they needed to set up their equipment. Duo and Quatre were operating on the ground, positioning themselves near the most forward of the drill teams to fend off enemy assault, while Trowa was hovering overhead and providing aerial fire support. The trio was very effective, but with their current tasks being defensive as opposed to offensive in nature they were considerably limited in the amount of damage they could inflict on the enemy.

A frantic male voice came over the task force channel. "This is Lowell Team! We're under attack! It's not the renegades, it's… oh, god, help!"

There was a scream followed by static , and Shinn grimaced with the knowledge of what that meant. Checking his sensors, he quickly found Lowell Team's position and saw that they were being assaulted by a familiar mobile suit.

The Gaia.

The stolen black unit was currently in its wolf-like mobile armor form. It was a configuration the Gaia was not supposed to enter during combat in outer space, but given the vast size of the ruins of Junius Seven this configuration was not only viable but devastatingly effective. Shinn saw the unit running across the surface of the ruins at incredible speed, taking down two GuAIZ Rs with pinpoint fire from its shoulder-mounted beam cannons. It then rushed forward and proceeded to slice a third GuAIZ R in half with one of its wing-like Griffon 2 beam blades before tearing apart the drill Lowell Team had been protecting with the other one.

Shinn knew that the Gaia had to be stopped in its tracks as quickly as possible, and he wasted no time in charging in.

"Shinn!" yelled Athrun, "We have to hold here!"

"That thing just wiped out Lowell Team and destroyed their drill!" Shinn shot back, "We have to stop it!"

"I know it's a threat," said Rey, "but we have to maintain our defensive standing until the drill teams we're defending finish their task."

"If we keep waiting that thing will take out more drill teams!" Shinn replied, not slowing down in the least.

Athrun relented. "All right, Shinn; that thing's all yours. Rey and I will continue to maintain our defensive position here. Good luck."

Shinn nodded, glad that he was able to get Athrun to see things his way. "Thanks. I will. Impulse, out!"

He rushed in, eager to take on the stolen machine. Raising his rifle, Shinn unleashed a volley of particle beams. The emerald beams punched into the surface of the colony around the Gaia, but the unit was very maneuverable and able to avoid taking any direct hits. Shinn did succeed in getting the enemy's attention, though, and the black mechanical wolf wasted no time in charging at him. The amount of firepower it could bring to bear in a frontal assault was considerably greater than that of the Force Impulse, and Shinn found himself hard pressed to block or evade the volley of emerald beams it unleashed on him.

Fortunately what Force Impulse might lack in raw firepower it more than made up for with mobility. Shinn hit his thrusters and gained altitude while raining down fire on the Gaia with his beam rifle. The enemy returned fire, but now that he was airborne it was easier for Shinn to keep one step ahead of his foe. However, Shinn knew that he couldn't stay up high for long. It might give him an advantage, but it also gave the Gaia room on the ground to charge another one of the drill teams.

He dived, beam rifle blazing as he approached the Gaia. None of his shots connected, and Shinn was forced to bring his shield up to block return fire from the Gaia, but he was swiftly closing the gap. He raised his beam saber and brought it down in a hard chop, but the enemy was able to reposition itself to catch the strike on one of its beam blades.

The Gaia quickly pulled back; its mobile armor form was ill suited for a traditional clash of blades. Shinn's foe began running around, seemingly erratically but in fact with movements that were designed to keep him off balance as the black machine took shots at him with its beam cannons before rushing in to try to slice him in half. Shinn raised his beam saber and was able to block the attack, but the sheer momentum behind the Gaia's attack was enough to push him back. The Impulse was nearly knocked off its feet, and in order to avoid losing balance Shinn was forced to hit his thrusters and take off.

His move gave the enemy the chance they needed to transform the Gaia into its mobile suit configuration. Now the unit was much more able to confront him in a regular duel, and its pilot wasted no time in taking off to meet him in the air. Shinn raised his beam saber to parry a diagonal slash from the black machine before responding with a thrust, but his foe was able to redirect that attack and counter with a vertical strike. They were incredibly aggressive, so much so that at times Shinn almost felt like he was fighting himself.

_Come on_, he thought, _You can do this! You have to!_

Quickly glancing at his sensors, he saw that the six mobile suits that had accompanied the Gaia down to the surface of the ruins were doing quite a bit of damage. Since there were still renegade GINNs on the battlefield trying to attack the drill teams Task Force Aurora and the three Gundam pilots down on the surface were concentrating their efforts on them, leaving the two Strike-Avengers and four Dagger Ls a chance to wreak havoc. One of the Sword Launcher units annihilated a drill with its Agni Hyper Impulse Cannon, while the other sliced a GuAIZ R in half with its anti-ship sword. The Dagger Ls backing the up were providing cover fire against ZAFT mobile suits that tried to attack the Strike-Avengers, and Shinn knew that he had to end his fight with the Gaia quickly so that he could get down there and prevent the enemy from destroying any more drills. He didn't know if the Gaia and its cohorts were in league with the renegades or if their own plans coincidentally involved sabotaging Task Force Aurora, but the results would be the same either way if they were not dealt with immediately.

However, despite his urgency, in a way Shinn was glad for the distraction of the duel. It kept him from focusing on one of the new arrivals on the battlefield.

The Freedom.

The stolen nuclear powered mobile suit that had become almost as famous as Wing Zero in the last war may have been aiding ZAFT in this battle, but Shinn hardly considered it to be friendly. Whenever he looked at that machine he felt nothing but a deep seated resentment bordering on utter loathing. It wasn't at what that mobile suit had done in the last war, but rather what it had _failed _to do… or what it _could _have done.

Not a day had gone by when he had not thought about the death of his family during the Earth Alliance's assault on Orb's Elysium colony. He remembered with perfect clarity the blast, the collapsed building… and his mother, father, and sister crushed under slabs of concrete and rubble. He remembered the Freedom fighting overhead with the attacking Earth Alliance mobile suits, and while that famous machine had taken down the invaders Shinn was well aware that not all of its shots had found enemy targets; some had impacted the colony.

It didn't matter to Shinn that the Freedom had been acting in the name of defending Elysium. Not only had it failed to save his parents and sister, there was the very real possibility that one of its errant shots had actually caused the building collapse that had _killed them_. That was why he was trying very hard to focus on anything other than the Freedom at the moment; if he looked at that machine for too long there was the very real possibility that he'd lose himself to his anger, and he knew that he could not afford that right now.

He continued to trade beam saber strikes with the Gaia over the ruins. The two mobile suits gradually descended back towards the surface, making strikes and counters as they went. Hitting his thrusters, Shinn charged forward and slammed into the black mobile suit with the Impulse's shield. The blow temporarily knocked the stolen machine off balance, but when Shinn tried to follow that up with a killing thrust the enemy was able to evade the strike at the last possible moment.

The two mobile suits pulled back and began trading beam rifle fire. However, while both pilots were accurate in their shots their respective foes were both fast and skilled; whatever beams weren't blocked by shields were dodged. Shinn was surprised that his enemy was able to hold out for as long as they had; they were better than he'd originally given them credit for.

The Gaia then charged him, making a downward left-to-right diagonal slash. Shinn was able to parry the blow and respond with a horizontal slash, but the Gaia managed to deflect the strike and respond with a quick thrust. Shinn redirected the blow before making an overhand chop, but his foe was able to block the attack.

_ I won't let you defeat me here_, he thought as he continued his clash, _I'll take you down, and I'll stop this colony's fall. I'll save everyone!_

….

"So what's our next move?" asked Lan over the Valkyrie Team's tactical channel.

It was a very good question. The four women were racing towards the surface of the ruins, but it was hard for Lan to tell where they should engage first, or even if they should be heading for the surface at all. While their top priority was of course to make sure that the ruins did not fall to Earth, just their joining the fighting on the surface was not necessarily the only means to ensure the success of the mission.

Lan in particular thought that they might perhaps be better off intervening in the two duels that were raging up above the ruins. While she certainly didn't doubt the skills of either Heero or his fellow Gundam pilot there was no denying that the foes they were both facing were skilled by virtue of the simple fact that they were both managing to tie up two incredibly deadly soldiers.

Heero appeared to be making some headway in his clash with the violet mobile suit. One of his foe's linear guns had been destroyed, and the Perfect Soldier was not stopping there. Lan had seen Heero put some considerable distance between his foe just a few seconds ago, and the answer to the question of why he had done so became readily apparent when he put away his beam saber and split the Twin Buster Rifle in half before opening up with two consecutive shots. The initial blast with one of the guns caused Heero's foe to veer sharply to the right, only to be driven right towards Wing Zero Albion's second shot. The purple machine was able to evade that second blast at the last possible second, but it was not without cost; the unit's right two gunbarrel drones were caught in the wave of energy and obliterated. Already Heero was rejoining his guns into their combined form and reigniting his emerald blade, preparing to charge back in to make use of his new advantage.

The second 'duel' was really a two-on-one matchup, but it was still grinding on regardless. From earlier briefings Lan knew that the green mobile suit was the Gundam Altron Custom, while the black and red machine remained unidentified. The red mobile suit fighting alongside the Altron Custom was clearly a ZAFT Gunner ZAKU Warrior, and intelligence relayed from Heero had identified the pilot as a ZAFT Red by the name of Lunamaria Hawke. Lan remembered that Wufei was the pilot of the green Gundam but had no idea who was flying against.

The fight had become all too predictable to Lan's experienced eyes. Wufei and his foe would engage in a sequence of melee strikes, blocks, and counters, only to break off for a moment to catch their breath before charging back in. It was during that break that Lunamaria would take a shot with her heavy rifle, but at this point the pilot of the black and red mobile suit was expecting such a shot and was more than able to anticipate and evade it. Lan was sure that Wufei could end the fight quickly if he tried to cooperate closely with Lunamaria, but from what she had observed so far he did not seem willing to do that.

_Gundam pilots must be a proud lot_, she thought, _Or maybe it's just this Wufei now; the others seem to have no problem working together, and Heero's been quite cooperative with us in the past._

Lan was always down for a good fight, and she knew her friends were the same way. Either of those duels looked like they would be fun to crash, and there was no denying that they needed to be wrapped up in a hurry.

However, that did not seem to be what the Valkyrie had in mind. Epyon Revenant's course was still set for the ruins, and the three Wraiths were following dutifully in its wake. In the distance she could see Mu La Flaga heading for Junius Seven as well, albeit from a different approach vector.

"We'll split up," said Shemei, "We need to take out those units from Bogey One that were able to get to the surface."

Lan nodded. That was a reasonable call, and from what she could see those seven units were definitely doing some damage. The Impulse was keeping the Gaia occupied in a duel that looked like it wasn't slowing down anytime soon, but the same couldn't be said for the two Strike-Avengers and the four Dagger Ls. They'd already destroyed a handful of drills, along with several ZAFT mobile suits, and if they were not dealt with quickly they had the potential to jeopardize the entire operation. While the other three Gundam pilots were down on the surface as well, they were preoccupied with defending other drill teams from the renegades.

_Looks like it's up to us_, thought Lan, _Time to kick ass!_

"Sounds good," said Adaline.

"So who gets who?" asked Priscilla.

"I'll take out one of the Strike-Avengers," said Shemei, "Lan, the second one's yours. Adaline, Priscilla; you two are on the Dagger Ls."

"Roger that!" all three of them replied.

"Don't underestimate them," Shemei cautioned, "They're using battery powered units, but those pilots look like they've got plenty of experience. Keep your guard up and watch your backs!"

"Affirmative!" the trio responded as one.

"All right!" said Shemei, "Engage at will!"

Lan nodded, and the four mobile suits immediately split up. Shemei made a beeline for her target, while Adaline and Priscilla set up to strike the four Dagger Ls. For her part, Lan isolated her target on her display and rushed in, ready to fire as soon as she was within weapons range.

It wasn't a moment too soon. She saw the Strike-Avenger she was tasked with engaging take its anti-ship sword to a Blaze ZAKU Warrior and slice the mobile suit in half. It then cut loose with its Agni and blew apart a GuAIZ R. One of the ZAFT drills wasn't too far away from the mobile suit, and Lan was determined to deal with her target before it destroyed the device.

"All right, you," she said as she locked on, "Why don't you try mixing it up with a _real _pilot?"

With that she cut loose with her beam rifles and railguns. The particle beams and slugs ripped through space, but the Strike-Avenger was able to evade the salvo at the last moment and the shots ripped into the surface of the ruins. That was fine with Lan though; now the enemy would be focused on her instead of trying to attack the drill teams.

The enemy didn't waste any time in responding. Her foe raised its Agni and quickly opened fire. Lan slipped to the left, easily able to avoid the stream of crimson energy. Igniting the beam saber embedded in her right shield, she rushed in to engage her adversary.

She led with a thrust, hoping to spear her foe through the cockpit and end the duel with one strike. Unfortunately that did not succeed; the enemy was able to redirect the strike, and despite the size of the anti-ship sword they managed to smoothly transition into a counter attack. Lan blocked their wide swing and pulled back, firing her beam rifle and railguns as she did so. The enemy was able to evade her particle beams, although two railgun slugs did hit the mobile suit. However, its Phase Shift Armor kept the impacts from being fatal or even damaging the machine. The enemy then opened up with its Agni, forcing Lan to go evasive.

_Okay_, she thought, _looks like this guy actually has some moves!_

That wouldn't deter her, of course. Lan charged back in, bringing her beam saber down in a vertical chop. The Strike-Avenger managed to parry the blow and respond with a slash, forcing Lan to redirect the attack. Her adversary quickly followed that up with a horizontal strike, Lan was surprised to find herself on the defensive.

As she pulled back a bit to analyze her foe, she realized that they were much more aggressive than a typical mobile suit pilot. When the enemy charged forward and made a thrust, Lan was able to redirect it, but the enemy then followed that up with a diagonal slash. Lan deflected that blow as well, and as she continued to engage her foe she remembered where she had seen this sort of behavior before.

_The Strike-Avenger pilots we fought at Jachin Due moved like this_, she thought, _Hyper-aggressive, no appearance of tactical planning or efforts at coordinating with teammates… it's just like two years ago. Is he one of them? We killed all the ones that we encountered, although I think one of the guys that fought Heero limped away. Is this guy that survivor, or are they another pilot that we just didn't run into on that battlefield?_

After a moment's consideration amidst the clash of energy blades she ruled out the possibility of this pilot being the one that had gone up against Heero two years ago. She hadn't seen much of the clash between Wing Zero and the 'Perfect' Strike-Avenger at Jachin Due, but what glimpses she had caught had revealed a foe with greater discipline than the enemy she was facing now. Her current adversary had skill, but their ferocity was more akin to a rabid dog than a calculated pilot.

A quick glance revealed her commander to be engaged in a similar duel with the other Sword Launcher Strike-Avenger, although the Valkyrie appeared to have a greater degree of control over her clash than Lan did. Shemei's attacks and parries flowed so smoothly it was unbelievable; the only other pilot Lan could compare it to was Heero. Epyon Revenant's larger beam sword most likely gave Shemei a better weapon to engage the Strike-Avenger's anti-ship sword with than Lan's conventional beam saber, but the Chinese Coordinator knew that the Valkyrie could've engaged her current foe with a normal beam saber just as well as with her new weapon.

Meanwhile, Adaline and Priscilla were mixing it up with the four Dagger Ls. Much to Lan's surprise the quartet of enemy machines had survived her comrades' opening salvos; the pilots were better than she'd first thought. They had split by pairs, with one pair engaging Adaline and the other tangling with Priscilla. Just the fact that they were cooperating was enough to tell Lan that those four pilots weren't of the same mold as those wielding the Strike-Avengers.

Despite their skill, though, they were outmatched in both machine and ability. Adaline and Priscilla's Wraith's by far outclassed the Dagger Ls they were squaring off against, and it didn't take long for the lethal duo to draw first blood. For Adaline it was by shoving her beam saber through a Dagger L's cockpit, and that was quickly followed up by Priscilla taking down a mobile suit with a pair of precise railgun rounds. The two of them quickly moved on to their next foes, and Lan doubted that those two machines would remain in the game for long.

_They're doing fine_, she admonished herself, _Focus on your own fight!_

Following her own advice, she pulled back from her foe before opening up with her left beam rifle and both railguns. While her particle beam failed to find its mark, both railgun slugs hit the Strike-Avenger in the torso, knocking the mobile suit back. Lan used that as an opening to charge in and lash out with her beam saber, but her foe was able to recover at the last moment and deflect her strike with their anti-ship sword. Pressing her assault, Lan thrust out with her blade again, and while her enemy succeeded in parrying the strike it was a very near thing.

Sensing an opportunity, Lan continued to attack. Her foe was still able to block her beam saber strikes, but from the frantic way they were defending themselves Lan could tell that they weren't used to being put on the back-foot like this. They were accustomed to offense, not defense, and that was something that Lan could exploit.

She lashed out with her violet blade, and as the Strike-Avenger blocked the attack she fired her Wraith's chest-mounted rocket anchors. They wouldn't do anything against the unit's Phase Shift Armor, but the mobile suit itself was not her target; its Agni Hyper Impulse Cannon was. The right anchor caught the weapon, and Lan immediately triggered its pullback mechanism. It wasn't enough to make the Strike-Avenger release the cannon, but it did put the mobile suit off balance.

As the mobile suit was pulled forward Lan pulled back and opened fire with her beam rifle. The particle beam nailed the Agni and destroyed it. Now she only had to worry about the anti-ship sword.

_Come on, Lan_, she told herself, _Time to wrap this up._

Her teammates certainly weren't wasting any time with their respective foes. The Valkyrie had apparently decided to stop toying with her enemy and was moving in for the kill. Epyon Revenant lashed out with its Heat Rod, wrapping around its Agni Hyper Impulse Cannon and shredding it. The Strike-Avenger opened fire with its CIWS, but the bullets bounced impotently off of Epyon Revenant's Gundanium ally frame. She then rushed in and thrust out with her emerald beam sword. The Strike-Avenger managed to catch that attack on its blade, but it was too slow in trying to block her follow-up slash, and Shemei sliced the Strike-Avenger in half.

Meanwhile, Adaline and Priscilla were wrapping up their clashes with the last two Dagger Ls. Adaline blocked beam rifle fire on her left Trikeros shield before opening up with the rifle mounted in the right one, nailing the Dagger L in the cockpit. As for Priscilla, she had he foe pinned with railgun fire, and before it could make a counterattack she rushed in and cut it down with her beam saber.

"All right, pal," said Lan as she crossed blades with her foe again, "You're mine!"

As the beam saber in her right shield kept the enemy's anti-ship sword at bay, Lan ignited the one mounted in her left. The enemy pulled back at the last moment to avoid getting impaled, although the blade did stab into the Strike-Avenger's right leg. Lan then gunned her engines and pushed forward, swiping aside the anti-ship sword and impaling the Strike-Avenger through the cockpit.

"Gotcha!" she yelled triumphantly as the mobile suit exploded.

However, as she celebrated her victory she forgot to check her surroundings. Her eyes widened in shock as she realized that a GINN had snuck up behind her during the duel. Its rifle was already raised and aimed square at her, and even as Lan reacted she knew that she would not be able to dodge or block the shot.

_No!_, she thought, _Not here!_

She was defiant even as she braced for the end…

…but it was an end that never came.

At the last possible moment a mobile suit interposed itself between the Wraith and the GINN… and not just any mobile suit.

The Gundam Sandrock Saladin.

The GINN fired a volley of particle beams, but they all hit the tan cloak the Gundam was wrapped in. The cloak disintegrated, but it had served its purpose; the mobile suit beneath it was completely undamaged. Sandrock Saladin then rushed forward and brought its two Heat Shotels together in a scissors motion, cutting the GINN in half.

A second later a young man appeared on her display. Even through the visor of his black helmet Lan had no problem making out his features. Platinum gold hair, bright blue eyes, a face that just seemed far too gentle to belong to the pilot of such a fearsome mobile suit…

…in short, a dream boy for Lan.

_Quatre Raberba Winner_, she thought, remember his name from the brief files Heero had shown her and the others, _I always thought he had a cute picture in that file, but… wow!_

_ He's hot!_

"Lan Zhao, right?" the young man said, "Are you okay?"

Her eyes widened. "You know my name?"

Quatre nodded. "Heero gave us a rundown of his associates back on the _Minerva_."

Lan smiled. "Of course he did. Thanks for the save, Quatre. I owe you one."

"Anytime," Quatre replied.

Lan's eyes narrowed as she saw movement behind Sandrock. "Quatre, go right!"

To his credit, the young man didn't stop to question her. He simply hit his thrusters and dodged to the right, giving Lan the opening she needed to put a particle beam through the cockpit of a renegade GINN that had been trying to sneak up on him.

"Nice shot," said Quatre, "Thanks!"

Lan smiled and winked. "You got it. Can't let a cute guy like you die on me right after you just saved my life!"

Even through his helmet visor the young man looked flustered, and Lan could swear that he was blushing. It just made him even cuter in her eyes, and she couldn't wait to spend some time with him after the battle.

"Uhm, sure," he said, "I, uhm, appreciate that!"

_Aw, he looks so innocent_, she thought deviously, _Quatre, you and I are going to have some fun once this fight's over if I have anything to say about it!_

Looking around, she saw no immediate threats in their area. "What's next?"

"I'm pulling back towards the surviving drill teams," said Quatre, "You should check in with your flight lead."

Lan nodded and did just that. "Hey, boss, what now?"

"The Gundam pilots have the right idea," said Shemei, "Fall back and guard the remaining drill teams while they finish setting up their equipment."

It was a good move, and with a glance at her display she realized that that was where La Flaga had gone in the chaos; Tallgeese Kai had already taken up position hovering over one of the drill teams. With its combination of agility, precision and the protection offered by its Planet Defensors it was actually an ideal unit for such a role.

"Do you think enough of them made it?" asked Priscilla, "They took some serious losses."

"How much of the colony can they break up with their surviving drills?" asked Adaline.

"We'll find out soon enough," said Shemei, "and we'll have to hope that the others are ready when the time comes for bombardment."

Lan nodded. Checking her sensors, she saw that the _Archangel _and the _Dominion _had ceased advancing towards the falling ruins a little while ago. The two battleships were maintaining an appropriate distance so that when the colony began to break apart they would be ready to hit the largest of the pieces with their new guns.

_The public debut of the Buster Cannons_, she thought, _Now that's going to be something to see._

The battleships wouldn't be the only ones targeting the debris. Lan knew from the briefing sessions that Dearka would be joining the bombardment with the Vayeate Kai's heavy Beam Cannon, and Heero was supposed to take part with the Twin Buster Rifle. However, since the Perfect Soldier was still locked in his duel with the violet gunbarrel mobile suit Lan had to wonder just how that part of the plan would pan out.

_Hurry up, Heero_, she thought, _You gotta take that bastard down, and fast!_

In the meantime, at least she had something to occupy herself with. As she pulled back Lan made sure to follow the Gundam Sandrock Saladin. The mobile suit's cute young pilot had certainly caught her attention, and she wanted to stick around to see what else he was capable of.

_I'm gonna make sure we both make it through this fight, Quatre_, she thought with a smile, _After all, we still need to get to know each other… and I'm sure that's a process I'm going to _immensely _enjoy!_

….

_Damn it_, thought Wufei as he watched Rodrigues dodge another shot from Lunamaria's heavy cannon, _Why does she have to keep interfering? This is _my _fight!_

Wufei was not the type of warrior who let someone in on a duel that he was determined to fight to the finish. Samuel Rodrigues had shown great skill in their original duel; he'd been capable of holding his own for a considerable time in the fight despite the fact that Nataku outclassed his mobile suit. That sort of ability deserved nothing but respect in Wufei's eyes, and for him the way to show that admiration was to fight Rodrigues one-on-one. However, Lunamaria had inserted herself into the fight and was showing no willingness to back down, forcing Wufei to accommodate her in a battle that by rights was his alone.

Once again he saw Rodrigues angle to attack Lunamaria, to try and take her out quickly before getting back to Wufei. Once again those efforts were thwarted by Wufei, who swiftly interposed himself between Rodrigues and Lunamaria before the former could strike down the latter. The proud Gundam pilot may have wanted the girl to stop interfering in his duel, but his sense of justice would not allow him to simply let Rodrigues cut her down so they could settle their score without an interloper.

The Gundam pilot was in a very strange place. On the one hand he was quite annoyed with Lunamaria, but on the other he found that a part of himself respected her courage. She may have been new to the battlefield but Wufei had no doubt that she was aware of how outmatched she was against the black and red mobile suit that he was now fighting. Even if her interference was at strictly long-range she had to know that it would be little effort for Rodrigues to close the gap, and indeed he would've done so already had Wufei not stopped him. Yet she had not hesitated to take her first shot and every subsequent shot, waiting only for an opening so she would not hit Wufei.

Her spirit was undeniable… and for Wufei it hit a little too close to home. It threatened to drag up memories and ghosts that he had long thought settled and dealt with. To deal with it he was focusing completely on the duel at hand, and at this point he had simply adapted to Lunamaria's presence and adjusted his fighting style to be ready to ward off an assault on her at the first hint of trouble.

_She's like __**her**__… too much like __**her**_, thought Wufei as he went on the offensive, _Damn it all…_

His double-ended beam trident whirling, he fell upon Rodrigues in a flurry of lightning fast blows. His foe's beam katana danced with incredible grace and speed, deflecting every single strike that Wufei sent his way. It didn't seem possible, but his enemy actually seemed to have gotten even better than the last time that they had done battle, and that had been merely _days _ago. Wufei couldn't say yet if his adversary was as skilled as Treize, but if he wasn't it certainly didn't stem from lack of trying.

_He would've been right at home in our old war_, thought Wufei as his foe countered and retook the offensive, _Treize would've recruited him on the spot._

Wufei fell back as Rodrigues attacked, waiting patiently for an opening to counter. As Rodrigues finished a sequence Wufei seized the opportunity and lashed out with his weapon, stabbing forward. His foe was able to redirect the attack but Wufei immediately followed that up with a horizontal slash. Rodrigues pulled back, but the strike did manage to graze the machine and leave a scorch mark along the upper torso.

_First blood's mine_, thought Wufei with a smirk, _If he had been just a split second slower that would've ended the duel right there. He's __**good**__._

He couldn't ask for more in an opponent. It was abundantly clear to Wufei why Heero had remained in the Cosmic Era rather than return to the After Colony world; here there were worthy foes aplenty to keep him sharp. Wufei was fulfilled here and now in a way that he never could've been during the peace that had taken over After Colony, and he was sure that Heero felt the same way. The spirit of the warrior had left After Colony, but it was alive and well in the Cosmic Era.

As he and Rodrigues broke off again another flash of crimson energy served to remind him of the only problem he had with this duel. Rodgrigues gunned his engines after dodging the shot, intent on eliminating Lunamaria immediately. Wufei would have none of it, and fired his Dragon Fangs. One of them hit Rodrigues in the back, not doing any damage but knocking the enemy off course and giving the Gundam pilot the chance he needed to close the gap and once again driving him away from Lunamaria. Wufei was scowling in irritation all the while, but he knew that he wouldn't forgive himself now if he let her die.

"You know," he told his unwanted ally, "you really should back off."

"Not a chance!" she shot back.

Despite his annoyance, for some reason Wufei couldn't help but smirk. "You're a real piece of work, you know that?"

"I'll take that as a compliment," said Lunamaria, "Now let's kick this guy's ass!"

Wufei's eyes narrowed as he crossed blades with Rodrigues. "_I'll _be the one kicking this guy's ass. You can just sit back and watch."

"Not gonna happen!" yelled Lunamaria.

Wufei shrugged. "Suit yourself."

With that he gave himself over completely to the fight, emerald double-ended beam trident whirling in a tornado of death. He was fully on the offensive, pushing Rodrigues back with each strike… and he was starting to land more glancing blows. A graze to the mobile suit's left leg; another to its right shoulder; a third to the right foot. None of them did anything more than add another scorch mark, but to Wufei they were all the evidence he needed to know that he was wearing Rodrigues down.

_You've fought well_, he silently saluted his foe, _and I really think it's a shame to end our budding rivalry here, but I won't let you escape. This ends here!_

….

Tall, rail thin, and with short-cropped black hair, the thirty-year old French Coordinator Commander Armand Roussin leaned forward in his seat as he studied the ongoing battle on the _Freya_'s main monitor. Now that the enemy capital ships had been dealt with the engagement was really a mobile suit affair; the warships of Task Force Aurora had repositioned themselves for their eventual bombardment of the debris.

_I never expected the Demon Lord of Avalon to intervene here_, he thought as he watched Heero Yuy's duel with the unknown violet mobile suit, _Him or the two rogue legged ships, really. When this battle first started, I actually had my doubts, but now… we might just be able to pull this off._

He turned to his communications operator. "How many of the drill teams are signaling readiness?"

"Checking," said the blonde woman in her mid twenties from her station, "Sixty percent were able to assemble their equipment, sir!"

_Barely more than half_, he silently fumed, _Damn it, is that enough? It'll have to be… we're out of time._

"Very well," he said, "Signal the drill teams and give the activation order. Once all the surviving devices are going I want all mobile suit teams to withdraw from the ruins!"

"Aye, Commander!" she replied.

….

_Damn it_, thought Heero as he dodged a volley of emerald beams, _I do _not _have time for this!_

Here he was, still trading fire with the violet gunbarrel mobile suit from the last two battles. Heero cut loose with his Twin Buster Rifle, but his foe was able to evade the blast of energy and continue the duel. It was true the enemy machine had been reduced to its two left gunbarrel drones, and he had knocked out its left linear gun earlier in the fight, but his progress was just coming far too slowly. Under different circumstances the Gundam pilot might be fine with gradually wearing his foe down, but in this battle time was not on his side.

The ruins of Junius Seven fell further with each passing second. It would not be long now until Task Force Aurora's drills activated and began to cut the ruins into smaller pieces. Heero's place was not here in this duel; it was as part of Terminal's bombardment force. However, he doubted that his foe would let him get out of this duel even if Heero had the upper hand. It was clear that the pilot of this machine and the others from Bogey One wanted to sabotage ZAFT's efforts here, and keeping him tied up in this fight would go a long way towards accomplishing their goals.

_Billions of lives are riding on this battle_, thought Heero as he rushed in for a beam saber exchange, _I can't fail them now!_

Emerald blade met violet and sparks of energy flew. The strikes were swift and furious, with Heero steadily pushing his foe back. A quick thrust eliminated the right linear gun, but it was far from a decisive blow when the mobile suit still had its beam rifle, saber, and left two gunbarrel drones to play with.

His enemy broke off, and Heero braced to evade a volley of fire from the two remaining gunbarrel drones. However, the violet mobile suit never got the chance to use them; a flurry of emerald beams, crimson lances of plasma, and yellow railgun slugs forced to go fully evasive and abandon its counterattack.

"Kira!" said Heero as he saw two familiar mobile suits coming in fast, "Yzak!"

"Heero!" yelled Kira, "You've got to get out of here!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Heero.

"The order just went out," said Yzak, "Task Force Aurora's firing up their drills!"

"We'll keep this guy busy," said Kira, "You need to set up for the bombardment!"

Heero nodded. "Right. Thanks."

"Anytime," said Kira.

Heero broke off as Kira and Yzak moved in to engage the violet mobile suit. Mercurius Kai was up front, its Planet Defensors deployed to deflect enemy fire, while the Freedom was sighting in with its formidable array of artillery, ready to unleash a fearsome barrage at the drop of a hat.

Confident that his friends would be able to handle themselves, Heero turned his attention to Junius Seven. Using both his sensors and the ZERO System, the Perfect Soldier quickly mapped out the active drills, and swiftly realized that there was a problem.

_Not enough of them are active_, he thought, _We've got to find a way to make up for that_

The answer came as he was studying the surface of the ruins and found the Gundam Epyon Revenant_._ His mind racing, Heero quickly contacted the Valkyrie, and his former rival appeared on his screen.

"Shemei," he said, "is your drill secure?"

"Secure and powered up," she replied, "I'll take off as soon as she makes a serious dent in these ruins."

"I need you airborne now, actually," said Heero as he sent her data, "and I need you to go here."

He saw Shemei's eyes narrow on the monitor. "Got it. I'll get into position and wait for your signal."

"No need to wait," Heero replied, "Start cutting as soon as you get there."

"Roger that," said Shemei, "Epyon Revenant, out."

Confident that she would make it in time, Heero then used the ZERO System to try to map out the most likely dispersal of the colony fragments once the drills and Shemei did their job. This was far trickier than simply utilizing the System in normal combat, but the Gundam pilot was able to come up with a reasonable predictive model that fit his needs.

After that came the _real _hard part. Immersing himself in the ZERO System, the myriad firing vectors of all the ships and mobile suits that would be involved in the bombardment assembled themselves in a complex, interlocking latticework. Every single unit had a part to play, and the real trick was making sure that each one got the exact data it would need to perform its role in the barrage. Isolating and organizing those key data fragments, packaging them and sending them out… for any other soldier a task of this scale would've been impossible. It was only through his mastery of the ZERO System that Heero was able to tackle this challenge, and even then he was keenly aware of the strain it was putting on his mind.

_All right_, he thought as he assembled the data and prepared to send it out to everyone involved, _Let's do this!_

….

"Captain!" cried Flay, "Heero's on the line!"

Murrue nodded. "Put him through, Flay!"

Heero appeared on the main monitor. "Murrue, what's your status?"

"We're in position for bombardment," Murrue replied, "The Buster Cannon's ready to fire on my command."

"Good," Heero replied, "I'm sending firing data across our forces. ZAFT didn't get enough of their drills online, but I found a way around that with Shemei."

Murrue nodded; she was fully aware of Gundam Epyon Revenant's capabilities and thus had a pretty good idea of what Heero had in mind. "We'll keep an eye open for her. I imagine it won't be hard to spot her contribution."

"Yes," said Heero, "I'm moving into position now. I'm setting up a separate channel for all the bombardment units. When the time comes, I'll give the order to fire."

Murrue smiled. "We'll be ready whenever it comes through. Good luck."

Heero nodded. "You too. Heero, out."

As Heero vanished from the screen Murrue turned back to Flay. "Did we get Heero's data?"

Flay nodded. "I've got it!"

"Good," said Murrue, "Set up a separate link for that bombardment channel, and get the firing data to weapons. We're only going to get one shot at this, so let's make it count!"

"Aye, Captain!" Flay replied.

"Lieutenant Tsukino," said Murrue, "Be ready to fire at a moment's notice!"

"Understood, ma'am," her XO replied.

"Lacus," said Murrue, "Have the Tiger move forward to cover the Vayeate Kai when it joins the bombardment. The Tigress will remain with us."

"Understood, Murrue," the songstress replied.

_We're so close_, she thought, _It's all coming down to the wire now._

_ Come on, Heero!_

….

All around him, Athrun could see the surviving ZAKUs and GuAIZ Rs taking off from the colony as the drills they were guarding activated. Athrun was ready to join them, but Shinn was still mixing it up with the Gaia and Athrun was hesitant to leave him behind. Rey was still on the surface as well, and Athrun wondered if it was because of Shinn too.

_He can't still be down here once the colony begins to break up_, he thought, _He'll be blown to bits with the amount of firepower Heero and the others are going to throw at the debris!_

He was about to go help Shinn when he caught sight of a fallen drill at the edge of his sensors. The mobile suits guarding it had been destroyed earlier by the renegades, but the device itself was still intact; it had only been knocked to the side by an explosion.

Athrun immediately began to move towards it. "Rey, go help Shinn! I'm going to setup and activate that drill!"

"Understood," Rey replied, and his white ZAKU Phantom took off and headed straight for the Impulse and the Gaia.

Confident that Shinn would be out of trouble soon enough, Athrun focused on his own objective. As he approached the drill he saw that it was partially caught in some of the debris; he would have to carefully extricate it to avoid damaging it.

"Here we go," Athrun muttered, sweat building at his brow as he concentrated on his task.

It was a delicate balance between speed and precision. It would be so much faster to use his rifle to blow away the debris, but that would destroy the drill in the process. However, if he took too long in recovering it and setting it up there was no way he would survive the colony's breakup and the ensuing bombardment from Terminal and ZAFT.

His ZAKU Warrior began to vibrate around him as he cleared the debris from the drill; the other devices were really starting to bite into the ruins. Soon they would begin to fracture, but if they were going to prevent catastrophic loss of life down on the planet then the pieces needed to be smaller.

A glint of green light caught Athrun's attention. Looking over at a section of the colony where the drill teams had not fared well, he saw a familiar crimson mobile suit. The Gundam Epyon Revenant had its beam sword thrust into the surface of the ruins, and Athrun's eyes widened in shock as he realized what was happening.

_The Valkyrie's using her blade in place of one of the drills_, he thought, _That… that's impossible!_

Impossible for any conventional mobile suit, but the Gundam Epyon Revenant was hardly a conventional machine. With the beam sword having a direct link to the Gundam's reactor it could be fed enormous amounts of power, and Athrun reflected that the weapon almost seemed like a melee-equivalent of Wing Zero Albion's Twin Buster Rifle.

Her efforts came not a moment too soon. Athrun could see the edges of the ruins beginning to glow red. It was soft right now, but it would grow brighter all too soon; the ruins were starting to enter the atmosphere.

"Gotta hurry," he muttered as he finished clearing the debris from the drill.

Satisfied that the machine was in working condition, he positioned the device upright before studying the controls. Athrun had never worked with any sort of equipment like this during his time in ZAFT, but supplementary briefing materials provided by Captain Gladys had given him a good idea as to how to get the unit operational.

_At least I don't need to worry about the enemy_, he thought, _We've just about mopped up the renegades, and Shinn and Rey are keeping the Gaia busy._

Indeed, from the look of things it seemed like the Gaia was ready to quit the field. Shinn and Rey were keeping the stolen mobile suit on the defensive through a combination of beam rifle fire and close-quarters assaults. Shinn was focusing primarily on the latter while Rey leaned towards the former. Their teamwork wasn't as tight and seamless as the kind that Athrun had built up with his comrades in Terminal, but it was still showing remarkable improvement from where it had stood just a few days ago.

The Gaia's comrades looked like they had just about had enough too. Wufei was still mixing it up with the black and red mobile suit with the beam katana while Lunamaria provided long range fire support. The mobile suit was sporting a few more scorch marks from close shaves with Altron Custom's double-ended beam trident, not serious blows by any means but enough to tell Athrun that Wufei was wearing his foe down. From the way the enemy was moving it looked like they were starting to tire from the fight; if they didn't withdraw soon they'd probably make an error from sheer exhaustion and give Wufei the opening he needed to take his foe down for good.

Meanwhile, Kira and Yzak definitely seemed to have their foe on the ropes. With Yzak playing the shield to Kira's sword the violet gunbarrel machine was hard pressed to find any opening to attack. As the Mercurius Kai's Planet Defensors blocked a salvo of particle beams Kira cut loose with the Freedom's artillery. The barrage of fire actually knocked out another one of the unit's gunbarrels, leaving just one of the weapons left at the mobile suit's disposal.

_Don't worry about the others_, he thought, _They've got things taken care of on their end. Focus on your own work._

Concentrating on the drill, he carefully entered the priming sequence on the large control pad in front of him. Once he saw a green light indicating that the device was good to go he hit the activation key. The drill immediately began digging into the surface of the ruins, throwing up bits of debris in the process which bounced harmlessly off the ZAKU Warrior's armor.

Athrun smiled. "Mission accomplished."

Unfortunately, he'd gotten careless. He'd been so focused on his drill and so convinced that the renegades had been dealt with that he was completely unaware that one of their modified GINNs was still in play. It had stayed low among the ruins to avoid detection, and Athrun only noticed it when it came flying out of cover, its beam rifle blazing.

"Shit!" he snarled as particle beams dug into the ruins around him.

He whirled around to bring his shield up to block the fire, but before he could do so one of the particle beams hit his ZAKU in the right leg and blew it off. Normally that wouldn't have mattered much since this was a space battle, but Athrun knew that if he took off now he'd give the enemy the perfect opening to destroy the drill.

Hitting his maneuvering jets, he tried to maintain a delicate balance while returning fire with his rifle. Unfortunately his foe was able to evade his shots and came in with its beam saber raised and ready to strike. Having no choice, Athrun rushed forward with his beam tomahawk; if he blocked the attack back here he would be pushed back onto the drill and would disrupt its vital work.

"Stop this!" he shouted at his enemy over an open channel, "This is pointless! The battle's over; you've lost! Do you really want to be responsible for the murder of billions of people?"

"This is justice!" a male voice yelled back, "The Bloody Valentine Tragedy has gone unanswered for far too long! This is our just revenge!"

"You idiot!" Athrun shot back as he blocked a beam saber strike with his beam tomahawk, "You're repaying a massacre with genocide! That's not justice!"

"This is what those animals deserve!" his foe shouted, "Those barbarians murdered my daughter! They'll all burn for their crimes! The will of Patrick Zala shall be done!"

"My father is dead!" Athrun growled as he worked furiously to keep his enemy away from the drill, "Fighting under his name is meaningless!"

"You're his son?" the man asked incredulously, "Then you of all people should understand my rage! Does not the soul of Lenore Zala cry out for vengeance, just as surely as that of my daughter?"

"You're wrong!" Athrun yelled, "The people who died here would want justice, not vengeance! They wouldn't want their grave to be used as a weapon!"

"This is the only weapon that they have!" the man defiantly replied, "It is their only means to strike back against those who murdered them! Those who died here will finally see true justice! If you are too weak to carry out your father's will, than I will do it for you! Go on and laugh with the rest of the killers in a world in denial if you will! The only path for Coordinators is that of Patrick Zala!"

_Father_, thought Athrun as he struggled to keep his foe at bay with his damaged mobile suit, _is this the legacy that you've left me, that you've left the world? Is the only use left for your name that of a banner for mass murder? Will I have to spend the rest of my life fighting the lost souls ensnared by your rage?_

It was such a sad mark for a man to leave on the world, but Athrun didn't have time to contemplate how he would deal with his father's legacy going forward. All he could do right now was fight the enemy in front of him and keep them from trying to accomplish his father's twisted will.

Behind him the drill continued to bore its way through the ruins. Fissures were growing around it like a spider's web; the device was making progress. At the same time Athrun could see the increasing red glow at the edges of the ruins, indicating their further descent into the atmosphere.

_I've got to get out of here_, he thought as he fended off his foe, _I'll die if I don't._

He could withdraw now; only his ZAKU Warrior's leg was damaged, not its thrusters. However, the enemy he faced was clearly a fanatic, and Athrun was sure that if he left now his foe would destroy the drill even if it meant he would lose his chance to escape the ruins. He had to find a way out of this mess, but how?

The answer came in the form of a superheated whip tearing into the modified GINN. Athrun heard his foe scream for a split second before their voice was overtaken by static and their mobile suit exploded. The whip quickly receded back to its source; the Gundam Epyon Revenant.

"Come on!" said the Valkyrie, "We need to get the hell out of here!"

Athrun nodded and hit his thrusters. However, he found that he was climbing far too slow for his liking.

"Damn it!" he said, "Gravity's stronger now. I'm too far down!"

"I got you," said Shemei, bringing the Epyon Revenant alongside him and adding her engine power to his.

Athrun sighed with relief as he began to rise. "Thanks."

"No problem," said Shemei.

Surveying the colony as they ascended, Athrun could see severe fissures coursing across it as the ruins began to break up. A great, glowing gash marked where the Valkyrie had cut through with Epyon Revenant's powerful beam sword. Slowly but surely the ruins were splitting up into fragments. However, those pieces were still large enough to do plenty of damage when they crashed down to Earth.

"Did we do enough?" he asked.

"Relax," said Shemei, "We did our part just fine. Now the bombardment group will be taking over, so I suggest you just sit back and watch the fireworks."

Athrun nodded as he checked his display. It looked like the enemy had finally been dealt with. There were no more renegade GINNs visible, while the interlopers looked to be making their withdrawal. Shinn and Rey had forced the Gaia to finally call it quits, Wufei and Lunamaria's foe was hightailing it out of there, and even Kira and Yzak's enemy was making their retreat.

Around the falling ruins he could see the myriad assembly of allied warships and mobile suits taking their places. The nine destroyers, single cruiser, and the battleship _Minerva _were all arrayed in a rough crescent on one side of the colony. At the opposite end of Junius Seven was the _Dominion_, while closer to Task Force Aurora was the _Archangel_. All the allied mobile suits had withdrawn from the ruins, with most maintaining a watchful vigil in the event that any enemies were still lurking in the area.

And floating up above the descending ruins, seemingly at the peak of it all, was the mobile suit that the coming bombardment would center upon.

Wing Zero Albion.

….

"Captain, the Tannhäuser is fully charged!" said Arthur, "We have our targeting data and are locked in. We're ready to fire on your order!"

_My order?_, thought Talia with some amusement, _Hardly. It's Heero's order that we'll be firing on._

When the Demon Lord of Avalon had contacted her and informed her that he would be the one coordinating the bombardment for the allied forces, Talia had had a hard time believing it. Heero Yuy's skills were renowned, but even that seemed like too much for a single pilot to handle, regardless of how advanced his mobile suit was. Nevertheless, Talia had realized that the Gundam pilot was quite calm about the idea, and it was that quiet certainty that convinced her that he really could pull this off. Bringing Task Force Aurora's Commander Roussin around to the idea had taken some work, but the stubborn Frenchman had eventually relented.

"Where's Athrun?" asked Cagalli worriedly, "He's not still down there, is he?"

"Meyrin?" asked Talia.

"Just got a confirmation burst transmission from pilot Zala a few seconds ago," Meyrin replied, "His drill's active and he's outbound."

Cagalli sighed with relief. "Thank heaven. He's all right."

"And the rest of our pilots?" asked Talia.

"Outbound as well," said Meyrin, "They reported that their foes are withdrawing."

The scale of what Heero was attempting to do was remarkable, all the more so considering he was just one pilot. It wasn't just the surviving warships on the field that would be taking part in the bombardment; Heero had explicitly requested that all surviving Gunner ZAKU Warriors also participate. Talia was sure that a few mobile suits from Heero's allies would be taking part as well; the blue one with the heavy beam cannon in particular seemed like a prime candidate. He would be feeding firing data to so many different sources at once that Talia was half-convinced that the Albion's computer would crash from the effort, but Heero didn't seem to be worried about that possibility at all.

_If only we had access to that mobile suit's secrets_, she thought, _Hell, I'd even be fine leaving out its rifle if we could learn about the Albion's hardware and software; the processing power of its central computer alone must far surpass anything our mobile suits have if he's confident that he can pull this off. Just being able to replicate that single feature for our forces would give us a huge advantage over any of our rivals. Not to mention the operating system the Albion must have… how the hell would something like that work?_

Unfortunately, those secrets remained well beyond the grasp of ZAFT. Heero seemed quite determined that they stayed with him. For now Talia supposed it would be enough to have the wielder of such sophisticated technology just fighting on their side, even if it was only part of a temporary alliance.

On the main monitor Talia could see the ruins of Junius Seven breaking up. The drills were doing their work well, but far fewer of them had survived the battle to perform their roles than Talia had hoped. The fragments of the colony were still quite large and were now burning red hot; if Task Force Aurora and their unexpected allies did not fire soon they would lose their only chance to prevent utter slaughter.

_Come on, Heero_, she thought nervously, _Anytime now…_

After what seemed like an eternity but was probably no more than a few tense seconds she heard Meyrin cry out. "Group wide transmission coming from the Albion! Patching it through now!"

Heero's voice came over the bridge speakers. "All designated bombardment units, prepare to fire on my mark. Five… four… three… two… one… mark!"

"_Fire!_" shouted Talia.

A storm of fire the likes of which had not been seen since the Bloody Valentine War erupted. A stream of crimson energy flew forth as the _Minerva_'s positron cannon opened up. It was joined by the heavy beam cannons of the other Task Force Aurora warships, along with smaller blasts of crimson energy from the surviving Gunner ZAKU Warriors.

As impressive a lightshow as the ZAFT survivors gave, it paled in comparison to the awesome power of their allies. Albion's fearsome rifle had split into two, and at the mark Heero Yuy unleashed twin streams of golden-yellow hellfire. The blue mobile suit with the heavy beam cannon that Talia had spotted earlier cut loose as well with a large beam the same color as the Albion's, and while it did not look quite as powerful as a maxed out blast fired from the combined Twin Buster Rifle was it was still quite potent. The Freedom joined them with a storm of particle beams, plasma blasts, and railgun rounds from its powerful array of artillery.

However, the true crown jewel of the bombardment came from the rogue warships _Archangel _and _Dominion_. Talia had wondered since the two ships had first appeared what those sinister looking cannons mounted on the upper hull of their central structures could do, and she was stunned to realize exactly what they were; the Albion's rifle on a battleship's scale. The white and black warships cut loose with titanic blasts of golden-yellow hellfire, the likes of which dwarfed even the full power of the Albion's Twin Buster Rifle.

The rain of fire hammered the fragments of Junius Seven, and a series of massive explosions erupted over the Earth. Massive chunks of the colony that could've done grievous harm had they fallen to the surface were blown apart by the incredibly powerful and precise barrage, and when the dust settled Talia could see that the surviving pieces were now much, _much _smaller.

Some would continue down through the atmosphere and make landfall, but their mass was so reduced now that Talia knew the risk of heavy casualties had been all but eliminated. Most of the bits left were already crumbling into ever smaller pieces, tiny bits of metal and concrete that would utterly disintegrate on the way down.

_I don't believe it_, thought Talia in stunned silence, _We actually pulled it off…_

_ We won!_

"Captain!" cried Meyrin, "Task force-wide transmission coming from the _Freya_!"

"Put it through," Talia ordered.

Commander Roussin's voice came over the speakers. "Attention all vessels and mobile suits, this is an order from the flagship; stand down. We've accomplished our mission. Well done, everyone."

The bridge erupted into cheers, and while Talia wasn't given to such enthusiastic displays of emotion she did allow herself a smile as she continued to watch the small fragments of Junius Seven burn in the upper atmosphere. The victory had been costly, but given the enormity of the stakes involved Talia knew that the sacrifices they had made were worth it.

"Rest in peace," she whispered, a quiet tribute to both the ZAFT soldiers that had fallen today and the nearly quarter-million people whose mass grave had been hijacked and nearly turned into a weapon of mass destruction.

A ghost from the last war had been banished today; the strongest remnants of the Zala regime had been purged by fire. A few isolated pockets might exist back at L5; hard line believers who could not denounce their hatred and lust for vengeance no matter how far behind the rest of the world left them. However, Talia was confident that the tiny fragments that remained would never be able to mass the same sort of resources and power that the renegades had today.

Patrick Zala's phantom had been vanquished, and billions of lives had been saved. As far as Talia was concerned, it was the greatest victory of her career.

_Well done, all of you_, she thought as she watched her bridge crew celebrate, _You've done your duty and performed exemplary work today. You've earned this victory. Today, you are all heroes, and no one can take that from you._

….

Heero gave a small smile as he watched the small fragments of debris burn in the upper atmosphere. "Mission complete."

The damage to the surface from those small bits of the ruins would be minimal, if any at all. His sensors were showing that the trajectories for many of the fragments would have them crash down in the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean, with a few heading towards the Mediterranean Sea. Some would still land on the ground somewhere, but they lacked the mass to cause major damage and casualties and the likelihood of them touching down in an inhabited area was remote.

The operation had been successful, albeit at a severe cost to Task Force Aurora. Apart from those casualties the only sore spot for Heero as far as this battle went was that the Gaia, the violet gunbarrel mobile suit, and the black and red machine that Wufei had been fighting had all managed to escape. Their battleship may have been destroyed, but Heero had a feeling that this was not the last time he'd be seeing those three mobile suits.

_Another day_, he thought, _Another fight… one way or the other, those three will have to be dealt with._

There was nothing he could do about it for now. Now he had to focus on his next move, and that involved contacting Murrue.

His lover's beautiful face appeared on his screen a few seconds later. "We did it, Heero! You were outstanding!"

Heero nodded. "Thanks. So were you, Murrue. Good shooting."

Murrue winked. "Well, it's not hard when you're feeding my crew targeting data. All we had to do was point and shoot."

Heero chuckled. "Good point. Still, well done, to you and your crew."

"Thank you, Heero," Murrue replied, "You know that we've always got your back."

"Speaking of back," said Heero, "I think it's about time we got back home."

Murrue nodded. "Agreed, especially before the ZAFT forces here decide to start asking us questions. Will you be riding with us?"

Heero shook his head. "I'll head down to Home One ahead of you."

"What about the other Gundam pilots?" asked Murrue.

"I'll invite them along," said Heero, "but whether they come or not is their decision."

"Got it," said Murrue, smiling again, "I'll see you at Home One soon. I can't wait."

Heero gave her a small smile. "Same here. We've got a lot to catch up on."

Murrue laughed. "It's only been about a week, Heero."

"True," said Heero, "but it's been a busy one."

Murrue nodded. "I can't argue with that. See you dirt side, Heero."

"Roger that," said Heero.

….

Duo grinned as he watched the debris burn to cinders in the atmosphere. "We came, we saw, and we kicked ass!"

Stopping an object from falling to Earth and causing mass devastation gave Duo a certain sense of déjà vu. There were plenty of parallels to draw between what had happened here today and the final battle of the Eve Wars, and having him and his friends play a key role in stopping a potentially catastrophic impact in both this world and After Colony made Duo feel very satisfied.

_Man_, he thought, _wait until Hilde and the others here about this when we get back._

It would certainly make for quite a story, but it would be a while before he'd be able to tell it. For now they were stuck in the Cosmic Era, but at least they'd earned themselves some goodwill with the locals. Helping to save the world had to make for a positive impression, after all.

His thoughts were interrupted by Heero's voice coming over their group channel. "Everyone all right?"

Duo nodded. "Good to go here."

"All systems operational," said Trowa.

"No problems here," said Quatre.

"I'm fine," said Wufei.

"Good," said Heero, "Listen up; I'm heading down to the surface. Terminal has a base we operate out of called Home One. It's a good place to rest up and plan our next move, plus there are some people I need to introduce you to. Are you guys in?"

"Sure," said Duo, "Why not?"

"All right," said Trowa.

"Sounds good," said Quatre, "We'll follow your lead."

There was a notable silence after that, though, and a few seconds later Heero was forced to address the source. "Wufei, did you copy that?"

"I heard you just fine," Wufei replied, "However… I think I'll stick with the _Minerva _for a while."

Duo raised an eyebrow. "What? You serious, Wufei?"

"Why?" asked Quatre.

"I have my reasons," Wufei replied curtly.

Duo was surprised to hear none other than Trowa chuckle. "Huh. I bet you do."

"What am I missing here?" asked Duo.

"It's nothing," said Wufei, although he sounded a bit forceful to Duo, "This is just what I feel like doing right now. I'll catch up with you guys later."

"Suit yourself," said Heero, "Duo, Trowa, Quatre; form up on me. I'll give you the exact coordinates once we're through the atmosphere."

"Copy that," said Duo as he moved towards the Wing Zero Albion, "Right behind you, buddy."

As Duo, Quatre and Trowa entered formation with Heero their Gundams began to glow red from the heat of atmospheric entry. There was some shaking too, but Duo knew that it was nothing to worry about.

Burning bright like shooting stars, the four Gundams descended to Earth.

**Preview for next time!**

_With the radicals' attempt to drop the ruins of Junius Seven onto Earth thwarted, the respective members of both Terminal and the crew of the ZAFT battleship Minerva take a well deserved break in the nation of Orb. For Heero and Murrue it's an opportunity to not only relax but facilitate some very important introductions between the other Gundam pilots and the core members of Terminal. However, for Cagalli the reprieve will be short lived as she is soon confronted by the politics of an officially neutral nation in a world of rapidly building tension. Manipulated by LOGOS and Lord Djibril, the Earth Alliance casts blame for the attempted colony drop on ZAFT and threatens to reignite the fires of war. Next time, on "Destiny's Call", Episode Six: Fragile Peace._

"_As long as mankind exists in this world there will always be battles."_

_Heero Yuy._

**Author's Notes: ** Well, I hope you guys enjoyed the firework show! Next chapter's gonna be a bit more low key, focusing more on character interaction, romance, and politics. Don't worry, the action will heat up again after that one. We've had a pretty eventful story so far, so it's good to take a bit of a breather before diving back into the inferno.

On a minor note, I'm sure you noticed the name I had the radicals give their attempted colony drop. The battle itself will still be referred to as the Break The World Incident even though events played out quite differently than they did in _SEED Destiny _canon, but I wanted to use the title of Operation Meteor as a way to demonstrate how similar ideas exist in both the Cosmic Era and the After Colony world even if those that come up with those ideas have no clue that others in completely different worlds have tried the same thing. Plus, it's always fun to drop my pen name into one of my chapters!

Until next time, everyone! Please review!


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's notes: **Hello there, it's been a while! Well, this one took significantly longer to write than I'd initially planned on, and that's _after _I decided to move some content from this chapter to the one that will follow it! Look, I'm really sorry for the delay, I know you guys were getting anxious, and justifiably so. However, I don't rush my work no matter what the circumstances are.

Chapter focus is actually mostly character development and romance. Love is in the air, folks, especially for some of our favorite pilots! Don't worry, there's some politics mixed in there, too; gotta move things forward and set up for the new war, after all. Also, the long-expected and highly anticipated meeting of the Terminal crew and the Gundam pilots (sans Wufei for the time being) is finally taking place! Fun times to be had by all!

Only two songs for this chapter. In order of appearance: The instrumental version of "Love Deterrence", which is found in MGSV: Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain, and "I Burn" from the RWBY soundtrack.

Enjoy!

**Episode Six: Fragile Peace**

As Heero led his friends on a tour of Home One he heard Duo whistle. "Man, talk about a sweet setup!"

"It's very impressive," said Trowa.

"I'll say," said Quatre, "You really made some big time connections to get a place like this, Heero."

Heero nodded. "Cagalli helped us get things started here, but another woman handled most of the project. Her name's Erica Simmons; she's the Chief Engineer for Orb's Morgenroete conglomerate."

Home One was the codename for the seaside estate that some of the core members of Terminal had taken up residence in once they had settled in to their new lives in Orb. Heero had guided his fellow Gundam pilots into the concealed hangar-bunker that was adjacent to the mansion so they could land their mobile suits, and from there it had been a very short walk to get into the luxurious home itself.

"There are guest rooms upstairs," said Heero, "You can take any of those you want."

"Sounds good," said Duo, "It'll beat the hell out of the bunk on the _Minerva_."

"Where's everyone at?" asked Quatre.

"I imagine most of them were on those two warships or piloting the mobile suits that launched from them," said Trowa.

Heero nodded. "Yes, although I believe two should be home right now."

"I presume you mean us?" said a female voice from down the hall.

Heero and the others turned around to see a man and a woman walking towards them. Both were of North African descent, with the man being fifty years of age and the woman forty-nine. They both shared tan skin, but while the man was tall with black and gray hair and tough silver eyes the woman was shorter, possessed gentle brown eyes and purple-black hair. Both smiled warmly as they approached Heero and his friends.

Heero stepped forward. "It's good to see you again, Mr. and Mrs. Rehema."

Akila Rehema smiled as she came forward and surprised Heero with a hug. "I'm glad you're all right. You know, you really shouldn't be so formal with your godparents."

Soran Rehema chuckled. "You really are a stubborn one, aren't you, Heero?"

Heero had to smirk as Akila released him. "So I've heard."

He turned around and had the satisfaction of seeing Duo with a look of complete shock on his face. "Whoa, back up there! Did you just say you were his _godparents_?"

Akila nodded. "Indeed. Heero, do you mind introducing us to your guests?"

"Of course," said Heero, "This is Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, and Quatre Raberba Winner. They're old friends of mine from my old world. Everyone, meet Akila and Soran Rehema. They're Shemei's parents; she's the one that was flying the Epyon Revenant in the battle today."

"I thought as much," said Trowa, "Your briefing did mention her and her old mobile suit, but not what she was flying today. It makes sense though, given what you told us about her."

"I'm surprised she's able to handle it," said Quatre, "Heero, even you couldn't get that beast under control in our war. Why make a new one and give it to her?"

"I felt she'd be better able to grasp the mentality required to use it correctly," Heero replied, "She hasn't disappointed."

"I'll say," said Duo with a smirk, "She was tearing it up out there! Can't wait to meet her!"

"So our girl's doing all right?" asked Akila.

Heero nodded. "She's fine. She should be showing up here later today."

Soran sighed with relief. "That's good to hear. She's been away from home for too long lately, no thanks to that machine you helped built for her."

"Epyon's version of the ZERO System is not to be tackled lightly," said Heero, "Intensive training was the only way Shemei could've achieved true control. I am sorry that she had to spend so much time at the L3 facility training, but it had to be done."

Akila smiled. "Well, at least she'll finally be able to come home for a while. We got a call from the _Archangel _before you got here. I believe congratulations are in order!"

Soran chuckled. "A mild understatement. A battle like that… you never stop pulling off the impossible, do you Heero?"

Heero smirked and gestured towards his fellow Gundam pilots. "I had a lot of help, these three included."

"Indeed," said Akila as she looked at the others, "Heero's told us a bit about the people he left behind in his old war. I heard that he was one of five Gundam pilots, yet I'm only seeing four of you here. Where is the fifth?"

"Wufei? He's back with the _Minerva_," said Duo with a shrug, "That guy always does his own thing."

"Even for him, though, it is a bit odd," said Quatre, "I wonder what's going on in that head of his?"

"I wonder if even Wufei could answer that question," said Trowa with the slightest hint of a smirk.

Trowa clearly knew something, but he didn't seem to feel like divulging it. That was fine with Heero. If it was really important he knew that their fellow Gundam pilot would give them a heads up.

"Well," said Akila, "I'm sure you four are hungry after that fight up in orbit. Care for some lunch?"

Duo raised an eyebrow. "Lunch? Shouldn't we be closer to dinner?"

Heero shook his head. "Not in Orb local time. You're going to have to adjust your internal clock while we're here."

"Got it," said Duo, smiling, "In that case, food sounds good!"

Akila smiled. "Excellent! I'll get something going for the four of you!"

"I'll take mine to go," said Heero, "I want to head to the dock before the _Archangel _pulls in. These three can stick around for a while."

"You sure?" asked Quatre, "I don't mind eating on the road."

Heero shook his head. "There are still parts of the estate that you need to see. Soran, do you mind showing them the armory and comm room?"

The Valkyrie's father nodded. "I'll take care of that after lunch. Best they know where all our hidden bells and whistles are early."

"That bunker and hangar earlier was quite impressive," said Trowa, "It'll be interesting to see how else you've modified this estate to suit your needs."

"Plus it'll be nice to know where all the firepower is," said Duo, "Never know when things might get dicey."

Quatre chuckled. "Dicey? That's the story of our lives right there."

Heero nodded. "Can't argue with that."

….

"Captain, link established with docking control," said Flay, "The red carpet's out and they're opening the front door!"

Murrue nodded. "Helm, bring us to surface! Flay, send docking control's telemetry to helm. I'd rather we didn't drive straight into a wall."

"Aye, Captain!" Flay replied.

Out the front viewport there was nothing but water ahead; the _Archangel _had taken full advantage of her new undersea capabilities to conceal herself beneath the waves as soon as she had made it down to the surface. Such action was necessary to avoid leading anyone to the secret dock that had been constructed for the vessel in Orb after the Bloody Valentine War. Murrue knew that at right about this time Natarle would likewise be heading for another dock not too far from hers that had been build specifically for the captured _Dominion_ and would be employing the same method of travel as the _Archangel_.

The warship rumbled slightly as it rose. A few seconds later the bridge breached the surface, but rather than seeing clear skies Murrue saw nothing but fog.

_Perfect_, she thought with a smile, _The mist generation system's working without a hitch. All we have to do now is make it into the dock._

The system wasn't a feature of the upgraded _Archangel_. Rather, it was a special countermeasure that had been built into the cliffs that concealed the entrance to the secret dock. The fog wouldn't last for too long, but for Murrue's purposes it was more than enough.

"Ma'am," said Neumann from the helm station, "We're lined up. Just give the word and I'll bring us in."

Murrue nodded. "Go ahead. Take it nice and slow."

The ship gradually moved forward. It was a little nerve wracking to not be able to see more than a few meters ahead of the vessel, but Murrue and her crew had practiced this maneuver quite a bit ever since settling into Orb, and they had the procedure down to a science now.

The fog slowly gave way to a giant opening; the camouflaged cliff-face doors had finished opening well before the _Archangel _had begun her approach. Bit by bit the massive warship entered the top secret facility that was jointly operated by Morgenroete and the Orb military, or more specifically by elements of both groups that owed their true allegiance to Terminal. The dock was completely off the books as far as both the company and the government were concerned, although Cagalli was aware of the facility.

_It never ceases to amaze me_, she thought as the ship entered the cavernous facility, _Orb's engineering prowess truly is top-notch._

The network of catwalks was alive with activity as workers rushed to their assigned areas. The two massive concrete platforms on either side of the _Archangel _were bustling as well. A huge network of lights was spread out on the ceiling, their powerful beams illuminating the gargantuan facility. The ship had just been through one hell of a fight, and while she hadn't taken any serious hits a thorough look-over and maintenance round was definitely in order.

Eventually the ship came to a stop and the massive doors began to close behind it. Gangways were already being run out from platforms on both sides of the ship, and a whole host of dockworkers were hastily assembling.

"Well done, helm," said Murrue as she stood up, "Lieutenant Tsukino, the bridge is yours until the relief crew takes over."

Her XO nodded. "Aye, Captain."

As the Lieutenant took Murrue's seat the lovely Captain left the bridge. She made her way through the ship's hallways with a slight pep in her step, eager to disembark.

"Someone you're anxious to see, Murrue?" said a familiar female voice from down the hall.

Murrue smiled as both Aisha and Waltfeld approached. The two of them had changed out of their flight suits and were now both wearing the standard Morgenroete attire of khakis and red and black shirts.

"Is it really that obvious?" asked Murrue.

"Come on," said Andrew, chuckling, "We know you better than you think we do."

"You're lover boy's not going anywhere, Murrue," said Aisha, "You'll see him soon enough."

Murrue sighed. "I know, and I realize it's only been a week, but still… it feels like so much longer."

"Well," said Andrew, "it has been one hell of a week. Sure as hell not what I was expecting when we launched Heero's recon mission to Armory One."

"He handled things very well given just how quickly the situation went off script," said Aisha as they all started walking together, "Hell, you could say this whole week's been one giant piece of winging it for him."

Murrue smirked. "Well, Heero's always been good at improvising. He once told me that all the Gundam pilots are. It definitely makes sense when you remember the odds they had to go up against in their old war."

"He certainly didn't have trouble making things up as he went along in the last war," said Andrew, "That sort of flexibility and quick thinking really comes in handy."

"If today's events were any indication, I think we're all going to need some of that," said Aisha, "We stopped the ruins from hitting the Earth, but this isn't over by a long shot."

Murrue nodded. "I'm sure you're right, and we'll have plenty to go over later on. Still, we did win a big one today. There's nothing wrong with taking a moment to celebrate"

Aisha smiled. "Got that right."

"I hear you," said Andrew, "I think some drinks are in order when we all get back."

"Yes," said Murrue with a smile, "I think we all deserve that at the very least."

"I hope the other Gundam pilots can hold their booze," said Aisha.

Andrew chuckled. "I'm sure we'll put them through their paces soon enough."

"Speaking of pilots," said Murrue, "have you two seen Kira, Dearka, and Yzak since coming back to the ship?"

"They're resting up," said Aisha, "Lacus joined Kira once you let her leave the bridge. I imagine Flay will do the same with Yzak once her watch is up."

"Poor Dearka," said Andrew, "He's gonna have to wait until the _Minerva _returns Cagalli to Orb to see Miriallia again."

"At least she's safe," said Murrue, "From what Heero reported to me she did a very good job on keeping her cover during her time on that ship. Eric's trained her well."

Andrew nodded. "I always thought that guy would've been better off working in an intelligence posting, but he wanted to be on the front lines. He's got a pretty good head for combat, both as a pilot and a commander, but if there's one thing his work for the Clyne Faction proved it's that he's one hell of a spymaster."

"A talent he's put to good use for us," said Aisha, smirking, "Although he still can't help but get in on the action when the time comes for a mobile suit battle. Of course, a lot of that now is because he wants to back Shemei up both on the field and off it."

"I can't blame him for that," said Murrue, "I feel the same way about Heero. We all want to help those we love when they're on the battlefield, don't we?"

Andrew smiled. "Well said, Murrue."

Before she knew it they had arrived at the hatch. Opening it up, Murrue led the way down the gangway. The assembled dockworkers broke into applause and cheers, and Murrue gave them a smile and a wave. She hadn't fought in today's battle for praise and recognition, but she had to admit that it felt pretty good all the same.

"Now this is a homecoming I could get used to," said Aisha with a grin.

"Yeah," said Andrew as he put his arm around her.

A woman was waiting for them out in front of the other workers. Dressed in the typical Morgenroete attire, she had mid-length brown hair and dark grey eyes. She had a friendly smile on her face and stepped forward as Murrue and the others reached the bottom of the ramp.

"It's good to see you all again!" said Erica Simmons, "I'm so glad that you made it through that fight unscathed."

"As are we," said Murrue before gesturing back at the _Archangel_, "We put some of those upgrades through their paces up there. I'm pleased to say that they performed splendidly."

Andrew smirked. "Understatement of the year. That Buster Cannon packs one hell of a punch."

Aisha nodded. "The fact that both the _Archangel _and the _Dominion _have that weapon is crucial for us. Without it we would've had to rely on the Lohengrins, and I don't think those would've done nearly as good a job at breaking up the debris."

Erica nodded. "I'm glad that they worked so well. Heero and I put a lot of work into that beast."

"I'm glad it paid off," said a familiar male voice, and Murrue's heart leapt as she saw none other than her boyfriend step out of the crowd.

"Heero!" cried Murrue.

She wanted to kick herself for not spotting him in the crowd earlier, but given that he was dressed in the standard Morgenroete attire he did blend in pretty well. That didn't matter, though; he was _here_, _now_, and that was all that counted.

Not giving a damn that they were in front of scores of people, Murrue rushed over and pulled the Perfect Soldier into a fierce kiss. If she took Heero by surprise he gave no sign of it; he readily returned her passion as he took her in his arms.

_This was what I really fought for_, she thought as she enjoyed the sensation of holding and being held by him once again, _I know it's selfish, but it's the truth, and I'll gladly admit it._

A few seconds later their lips parted, although they still held each other. The crowd around them broke out in wolf-whistles and cheers, and while Murrue definitely felt herself blushing her smile never left her face.

She turned back to Heero, who had a small smile on his face as well. The Gundam pilot seemed almost amused by the attention they were getting.

"I've missed you," said Murrue, "I know we spoke over the encrypted channel, but still… I'm so glad you're back. Welcome home, Heero!"

Heero nodded. "It's good to be back. Thank you, Murrue."

Murrue kissed him again. "Anytime, Heero."

"Good to see you, Heero," said Erica, "I didn't know you were here."

"I got here just as the _Archangel _started pulling in," Heero replied, "I left three guests at Home One. I'm sure you'll want to meet them eventually."

Murrue nodded. "Definitely. Although… why didn't Wufei come with the others?"

Heero shrugged. "I've got a few ideas, but nothing concrete. It's not too surprising, though; he does things his own way. More so than any other Gundam pilot, really."

"Well, we still get to meet three of your old friends," said Andrew with a smile as he held out his hand, "Heero, glad you made it back in one piece."

Heero let go of Murrue to shake the Desert Tiger's hand. "Same goes for you. Thanks for defending the _Archangel_."

"Anytime," said Andrew.

"Heero," said Aisha, coming in for a quick embrace, "You put on one hell of a show out there! Nice shooting!"

Heero chuckled as she released him. "Thanks. That wasn't the toughest shot I've had to make, though. Number one's definitely the _Libra_, although GENESIS would be a close second."

"Hopefully you'll get a break from putting Wing Zero Albion through its paces for a while," said Murrue, "I'm sure you could use some rest."

Heero nodded. "A little vacation would be nice, although I'm not sure how long it will last. We dealt with the most immediate threat to Earth, but I don't think this is over yet."

"I feel the same way," said Erica, "Still, it won't hurt to take a little time for yourself. Besides, you've still got some old friends to introduce us all to."

Andrew chuckled. "That's going to be an interesting meeting."

"Especially once Shemei and her girls show up," said Aisha, "Lan's going to have a field day."

"Speaking of Shemei and the others," said Murrue, turning to Erica, "has the _Dominion _made it home yet?"

Erica nodded. "I got a call from Beta Dock just as you finished pulling in. _Dominion_'s securely parked. She just needs a tune-up like the _Archangel _and she'll be good to go."

Murrue smiled. "Glad to hear it. It'll be nice to see Natarle and the others when they get back to Home One."

"Yes," said Erica, "By the way, the _Minerva_'s due to arrive in Orb pretty soon. The dock she'll be staying at is the one that you and Heero are supposed to be working at for your cover jobs. Don't worry; I got you set up with some time off. I figured you'd need a bit of a rest after today's fighting."

"I appreciate that," said Murrue, "I'm not sure how well known my face is to ZAFT, but they definitely know Heero's. It'd ruin his cover if they spotted him as part of an Orb dock crew. I wouldn't mind getting an up close look at the _Minerva _at some point, though. Perhaps I could head in just for one day?"

"We'll see how things play out," said Erica, "I've mostly got Morgenroete regulars working those crews, but I did slip in a few Terminal staffers too. They'll be able to get an up-close and personal look at the ship."

"I already sent over my report on it," said Heero, "and I included Miriallia's with it. No disrespect to your dockworkers, but I doubt they'll learn much more than we already have."

The Desert Tiger shrugged. "It can't hurt to be thorough. The _Minerva_'s a formidable warship. I'd say she could probably go toe-to-toe with the pre-modification _Archangel_."

Aisha nodded. "From what I saw in the fight it looks like ZAFT spared no expense for their new battleship. We need every scrap of information we can get on it, especially since we don't know for sure if she's the only one of her kind that ZAFT plans to produce."

"Eric still hasn't gotten any evidence of more of those ships in the works?" asked Murrue.

Andrew shook his head. "From what he told me, his sources within ZAFT's military shipyards indicate current warship construction is still focused on producing more _Nazca_-class destroyers and _Hel_-class cruisers to replace the _Laurasia_-class frigates that they're phasing out. They might be waiting for more combat data on the _Minerva _before starting up another ship of her class."

"They might also be strapped for resources and can't afford to have more than one of her right now," said Heero, "Don't forget that building the super carrier _Gondwana _put a serious dent in their military budget, one that they still haven't completely recovered from."

"Regardless of the reason, the fact remains that for now there's only one of those ships that we need to keep track of," said Erica, "I don't suppose Wufei would be willing to act as a source of intelligence for us since he's still on board the _Minerva_, would he?"

Heero shook his head. "No, he hates that kind of subterfuge. His pride won't let him be part of something like that. In fact, it might be some time before he agrees to work with us in any sort of capacity."

"That's a shame," said Murrue, "Oh well; we'll just have to work around that. At least the other three Gundam pilots show greater flexibility."

"I look forward to meeting them," said a familiar female voice from behind her.

Murrue turned around and smiled as she saw Lacus and Kira coming down the _Archangel_'s gangway. They both smiled and waved as they approached the group, with Kira and Heero sharing a nod of recognition.

"Glad you two could join us," said Erica with a smile, "Kira, Lacus, I'm glad you're both okay."

"Good to see you again," said Kira, "Heero, good job up there!"

Heero nodded. "Thanks for the help."

"Anytime," Kira replied, "That guy you were fighting was pretty good."

Murrue nodded, her eyes narrowing. "Too good. The way he was able to stand against you and survive means he's no amateur. He has to have fought in the last war. Heero, do you have any idea who the pilot might be?"

"I'm not sure," Heero replied, "The mobile suit itself was a new model, but… there was something about the pilot. I think we did clash in the last war, but I'm not completely sure where or when."

"I got a strange vibe from him when I fought him," said Kira, "It was like when I could feel Creuset during that last battle in the last war… but it wasn't entirely the same sensation. There was something different about it… I don't really know how to describe it. Sorry, but I don't have much more than that."

"Even that little bit's enough to make me nervous," said Andrew, his good eye narrowing, "If whoever you fought is related to what went on at Mendel… well, the only good thing to ever come out of that colony was the Hawk of Endymion."

"You really don't think it's another Al Da Flaga clone, do you?" asked Aisha.

Kira shook his head. "Like I said, it wasn't entirely the same feeling that I got with Creuset. Whoever this pilot is, I don't think they're directly related to Al Da Flaga's legacy. Still, there's got to be a link there somewhere. That's the only reason I can think of for having that sensation while fighting him."

"Whoever they may be, I only pray that they do not share Creuset's overwhelming hatred for humanity," said Lacus solemnly, "That brought us to the brink of Armageddon in the last war. We cannot afford a repeat of two years ago."

_Agreed_, thought Murrue, _however, given that this individual seemed to be acting with the intent of disrupting our efforts to prevent the fall of Junius Seven, it's quite possible that he does share that same malice and venom. If that is indeed the case then we can only hope that he lacks Creuset's cunning, charisma, and influence._

"We can have the Wolf and his network do some digging later to see what they can find out," said Erica, smiling, "In the meantime there's no point in us worrying over something that we have no control over. You've all had quite a day; what you really need to do is head home and get some rest."

Murrue nodded and smiled. "I won't argue with that. Shall we, Heero?"

"Yes," the Gundam pilot replied, "but you should probably change first. You can't wear that in public, remember?"

Murrue looked down at her Orb military uniform and realized that Heero was quite right. The uniform was one of convenience; Terminal did not have its own uniforms and Orb military attire had been easy to come by. Still, the organization knew that it could not afford to be seen as directly linked to the neutral nation, so the uniforms were only worn when on Terminal warships.

Murrue smiled. "Yes, I suppose you're right. Let me get changed and then we'll head for Home One. I can't wait to meet your friends, Heero."

Heero nodded and gave her a small smile. "I'm sure you'll like them."

Murrue leaned in and kissed him. "I don't doubt that a bit."

….

Sitting on the bridge of the _Minerva_, Cagalli smiled as she saw the Orb mainland out the main viewport. "Orb… at last."

She felt a familiar hand on her shoulder, and she looked up to see Athrun smiling at her. "We made. I have to admit there were times I was a little worried about getting this far."

Cagalli put her hand on his and nodded. "I know what you mean. I'm glad we were able to survive long enough to see it again."

"Not to mention save it," said Athrun, "If one of those chunks of Junius Seven had survived and hit one of the islands or the sea nearby…"

Cagalli shuddered. "I really don't want to think about that, Athrun."

Athrun nodded. "Sorry. Besides, we stopped that from happening. We saved Orb and the rest of the world."

Cagalli smiled and shook her head. "I was just sitting on the bridge the whole time, Athrun. Everyone else fought, but all I could do was watch. You fought for me, though. Thank you."

Athrun smiled. "I'm your bodyguard, remember? Fighting for you is part of my job description. Besides, you're still recovering from your head wound."

_I know_, she thought, _but I still don't like you risking your life while I'm not able to fight alongside you. Besides, my wound's not that bad now. I actually got the bandages taken off just after we touched down in the ocean._

As Orb's Chief Representative Cagalli knew in her head that her place was not on the battlefield, but it was hard to square that knowledge away with the powerful desire to fight in any way she could for a better world. In the Bloody Valentine War her duties as a leader had not stopped her from jumping into the cockpit of the Strike Rouge and joining Athrun on the front line, and if she'd had the chance to do so again during the battle today she would've gladly taken it. Unlike the nobles and other politicians she had to deal with back in Orb, Cagalli was more than prepared to risk her life in combat. In fact, she found that to be far easier than dealing with the ugly politics that came with keeping five aristocratic families and the elected parliament from ripping each other and their country apart.

She couldn't let Athrun see her discontent though, not when he had fought so hard on her behalf. All she could do was express her gratitude and try to make sure his efforts counted for something.

"Captain," Cagalli heard the ZAFT sensor officer say, "We've got incoming aerial contacts! Six units; Murasames in mobile armor form!"

"Must be our escort," said Captain Gladys, "Although with their Chief Representative being on this ship I would've thought they'd send a larger honor guard."

The main monitor shifted to show the Orb machines. Unlike the units flown by Andrew and Aisha Waltfeld up in orbit these machines bore the standard military paint job; a mix of white and black with red trim.

"Contacts are hailing us," said Meyrin, "Patching it through."

A woman who appeared to be in her early twenties, with brown eyes and black hair, and wearing an Orb pilot's flight suit appeared on the main monitor. "This is Lieutenant Yuki Chiba of the Orb military to ZAFT battleship _Minerva_, requesting confirmation on the safety and well-being of Chief Representative Athha!"

Captain Gladys turned and nodded at Cagalli, who took that as her cue to stand up and step forward.

"This is Chief Representative Cagalli Yula Athha," she said, "I'm all right, Lieutenant Chiba."

The Orb pilot nodded and smiled. "Lady Cagalli, it's good to see you. I'm the leader of Red Flight; we've been ordered to act as your honor escort. A delegation is eagerly awaiting your arrival at the docks."

"Who's the delegation composed of?" asked Cagalli apprehensively.

Lieutenant Chiba shook her head. "I'm sorry, Lady Cagalli, but I don't know more than what I've already told you."

Cagalli nodded. "I understand. Carry on, Lieutenant."

"Yes, Lady Cagalli," said the officer before turning to the _Minerva_'s commanding officer, "Captain Talia Gladys, with your permission we will form up over your vessel."

The ZAFT Captain nodded. "Go ahead, Lieutenant."

"We'll be arriving shortly," said Lieutenant Chiba, "Orb docking control will be contacting you shortly to update your approach vector. Red Flight, out."

"Hey," said Athrun as the Orb pilot disappeared from the screen, "are you okay?"

Cagalli nodded. "Yeah… I'm just not really looking forward to meeting this delegation."

"The Seirans?" asked Athrun, "You know the Lieutenant didn't say that they were part of the delegation."

Cagalli sighed. "It doesn't matter. I should've known better than to ask. They'll be there whether I like it or not. The only variable is whether I get stuck with one or both of them."

"I never got why they seem to give you such a hard time," said Athrun, "I mean, Yuna's your cousin right? The Seirans are essentially extended family for you; they should be some of your strongest supporters."

Cagalli gave him a weary smile. "I wish it worked that way, Athrun. I really do. Things would be so much easier."

Athrun looked down, clearly frustrated. "I hate politics. Father had a talent for it, but it seems it wasn't passed on to me."

Cagalli reached out and took his hand. "Believe me, that's something I'm grateful for."

Athrun nodded and smiled. "Thanks. Look, if there's anything I can do to help you out in dealing with them, just ask."

Cagalli would happily take all the support she could get, regardless of whether or not Athrun was skilled with Orb politics. "Just have my back, okay? I can handle the rest."

Athrun smiled. "Count on it."

"Pardon my intrusion," said Captain Gladys, and Cagalli was surprised to realize that the _Minerva_'s commanding officer had walked right up to her without her or Athrun noticing, "I couldn't help but listen in, Lady Cagalli. Will there be some sort of problem waiting for us at the docks?"

Cagalli shook her head. "It's an internal matter, Captain. I promise that it will not endanger the _Minerva_, and I will do everything in my power to make sure that your ship gets proper maintenance. It's the least I can do to return the hospitality you've shown me, not to mention your service in today's battle."

Captain Gladys nodded and smiled. "I appreciate that, Lady Cagalli. As a ZAFT base I know that Carpentaria would be better equipped to help us perform extensive repairs on the _Minerva _than an Orb facility would be, but I am grateful for any assistance you can offer us. If it is not too much of an imposition, I would like to ask a separate favor of you."

"Please, feel free," Cagalli replied, "I think the least I can do is hear you out."

"Thank you," said the Captain, "As I'm sure you know, this past week has been a rather stressful time for all of us. While we're in your country I would like to give my crew the opportunity to enjoy some shore leave. I think they've earned it after what they've been through."

Cagalli nodded and smiled. "I agree. I'll make the proper arrangements, Captain."

"My crew will be very grateful to hear that," said Captain Gladys, "as am I. Lady Cagalli, we're in your debt."

Cagalli laughed and shook her head. "Your crew helped save the world, Orb included, from catastrophe, Captain. You don't owe me or my country anything."

"You're too kind, Lady Cagalli," said the Captain with a smile, "Thank you."

"You're quite welcome," Cagalli replied.

Captain Gladys then looked past Cagalli and Athrun. "Ms. Peterson, I presume you'll be disembarking with Lady Cagalli, correct?"

Cagalli turned to Miriallia, a bit surprised that she was still on the bridge. She hadn't even noticed her back there.

Miriallia nodded. "I'll be leaving the ship, although if it's all right with you I'd like to wait until after Lady Cagalli's departed. I don't think it'd be proper for an independent journalist to be part of the Chief Representative's entourage."

Cagalli gave her a smile. "It's all right, Marilyn. I don't mind."

Miriallia shook her head. "I appreciate that, Lady Cagalli, but from what I overheard earlier it sounds like you're going to have your hands full when we arrive. I'll leave separately to avoid causing any inconvenience."

"Is that all right with you, Captain Gladys?" asked Cagalli.

The Captain nodded. "It's fine. If you'll excuse me, I should get back to my station."

The ZAFT officer returned to her chair, and Cagalli watched as the harbor drew closer out the main viewport. All too soon the dock where the ship would be berthing came into view, and Cagalli found herself dreading the coming disembarking. It was inevitable, and with the world in such a tense state of affairs it was her duty to be in her country to guide it through these troubled waters, but she was certainly not looking forward with what that guidance would entail.

The dock grew larger and larger as the _Minerva _approached, and Cagalli leaned forward to see if she could make out any people on the surrounding platforms. Aside from the typical array of dockworkers and technicians she was able to pinpoint a group of people who appeared to be wearing the high-end maroon suits that were almost the standard attire for Orb's governing nobility. At this distance she couldn't make out distinct features quite yet, but she had a feeling she already knew who was among them.

Cagalli sighed. She'd give just about anything to be back in orbit right now, but that was out of the question. She was here, back in her home country, and her obligations could no longer be avoided.

Eventually the ship came to a stop, surrounded by the concrete platforms and steel cranes and catwalks of the massive facility. Cagalli could no longer see the crowd she'd spotted earlier; they were outside of view from the bridge. She looked over at Captain Gladys, waiting for her signal to leave.

After about a minute the Captain stood up and nodded at her XO. "Arthur, you have the bridge."

Her second in command nodded. "Understood, Captain!"

She then turned to Cagalli and Athrun. "I'll escort you off. Please, follow me."

Cagalli and Athrun both stood up and joined her as she led them out of the bridge. The journey through the ship's corridors to the hatch was conducted in silence, which was fine by Cagalli; she had too much on her mind to really hold a decent conversation at the moment.

They reached the hatch much too soon for Cagalli's tastes. She took a deep breath and did her best to prepare herself for what would be beyond that door, although she knew that no amount of preparation was ever enough when it came to what she was about to face.

"Relax," said Athrun, giving her a nod, "You can do this."

Cagalli smiled. "Thanks."

"I hope you're ready," said Captain Gladys as she tapped a keypad on the wall, "because here we go."

The hatch opened, and Cagalli immediately found herself assaulted by the sounds of a busy dock. Workers were bustling everywhere, moving equipment to and from as they prepared for the maintenance they would soon be called upon to perform. Despite her apprehension, Cagalli did find it good to see so many of her countrymen again, especially ones wearing Morgenroete uniforms; thanks to Erica Simmons's influence she knew that the company always had her back even when her fellow nobles and politicians did not.

Captain Gladys motioned for Cagalli to take the lead. "After you, Lady Cagalli."

Cagalli nodded and stepped forward, with Athrun right behind her. The assembled dockworkers erupted in cheers and applause as she made her way down the ramp, and Cagalli forced a smile for their sake. Whatever friction she had with her fellow leaders of this country, she knew that her people had always believed in her, and she wanted to do her best to show them that she appreciated that and would not let them down.

"So far so good," said Athrun.

Cagalli nodded, but she knew it wouldn't last. Down at the bottom of the ramp was the group of people that she had spotted earlier. Delegates from the other four Orb noble families were indeed among them, and at the front were the two men that she had been dreading meeting again.

_Yuna Roma Seiran and Unato Ema Seiran_, she thought ruefully, _Here we go…_

Unato Ema Seiran, a balding 49 year old man with some grey hair along the sides of his head, was both the head of the powerful Seiran noble family and the prime minister of the Orb Union. His sharp black eyes protected by orange glasses, he remained as difficult to read as ever. While his position technically made him second in command to Cagalli, the office of the prime minister was charged with much of the country's day to day administration while the Chief Representative was considered to be the overall leader of the country and dominant in foreign affairs and the military. Cagalli could still make her own domestic policy decisions, but without the cooperation of Unato and the other ministers under his influence it could be very difficult to advance a particular agenda, something she knew her prime minister was well aware of and frequently took advantage of. Even her purview regarding foreign affairs was not completely removed from potential interference from the prime minister; the tentacles of Unato and the broader Seiran family were spread far and wide, influencing the country's diplomatic services and making it harder for Cagalli to pursue certain policy goals. The Orb Union's armed forces had been more resilient in the face of intrusions and interference from the prime minister and his underlings, but even then the Seirans had made a few inroads.

Cagalli was well aware of her prime minister's desire for greater power, but that also did not detract from her knowledge that Unato did care about Orb… after a fashion, at least. The man had his own vision for what he believed was good for the country, and if it conflicted with the ideals of Cagalli and her late father then the man was clearly willing to deal with that. Cagalli wished Unato could be more flexible; she was willing to work with him, but so many of their meetings had felt like little more than exercises in banging her head against a brick wall.

_The Seiran family has always been considered a close second to the Athha family_, she thought grimly, _I never liked these family rivalries, and I have no idea how father managed to deal with them. With him gone, though, Unato's worked hard to expand the Seiran's power base. By now they're likely the equal of my own family in all but name… and for all I know their influence could still be growing._

As tricky as Unato could be to deal with, though, Cagalli found that she still preferred her clashes with him compared to the other member of the Seiran family that was present today. That would be the prime minister's son Yuna Roma Seiran. Twenty-two years old, outwardly he was a man that many would find attractive, with well groomed purple hair, bright blue eyes, and a slender figure. He was smiling, and while he might have considered himself a charmer Cagalli only found him to be tiresome. That was made worse by his arrogance and his almost eager willingness to play along with his father's political games. Behind that civil veneer was a burning ambition that could rival his father's, and that was something Cagalli knew she had to watch out for. He was clever, but Cagalli was aware of the fact that Yuna had a habit of overestimating himself.

"Cagalli!" said Yuna as she hit the bottom of the ramp, coming up to her with open arms.

Before Cagalli could react her cousin took her into an embrace. "I'm glad you're safe!"

"Yuna!" said Cagalli, trying to politely shake him off.

When they were kids this sort of display of affection hadn't bothered her, but now that they were both adults Cagalli found that she was not comfortable with it. Yuna had a habit of trying to be overly familiar with her, and she did not like some of the undertones he brought with that.

After a few seconds she managed to break free of his grip. She shot an apologetic look at Athrun, and to his credit her bodyguard appeared relatively calm, although Cagalli could tell Yuna's actions had made him a little uneasy.

_Sorry, Athrun_, she thought, _Please, I need you to bear with me here for a little while…_

Unato stepped forward. "Yuna! I understand how you feel, but you need to exercise more control over yourself. You're a member of the Seiran family; keep your composure in public. I'm sure the ZAFT personnel here are shocked at your behavior."

Cagalli looked back at Captain Gladys, who had quietly descended the ramp behind her and Athrun. To the Captain's credit she seemed fairly at ease, and she simply shook her head and smiled.

"It's quite all right, prime minister Seiran," she said, "I'm sure all of Orb is greatly relieved at the safe return of its Chief Representative."

Unato gave her a rather stiff bow. "Indeed. Thank you for watching over Lady Cagalli and bringing her home."

Captain Gladys nodded. "It was my pleasure."

"Unato," said Cagalli, "I promised Captain Gladys that we would assist with the _Minerva_'s maintenance while it's here. Her crew is also to be allowed shore leave. I trust this won't be an issue?"

Unato shook his head. "No. I believe we owe ZAFT that as a courtesy for bringing you home."

Cagalli sighed with relief. That was one small matter out of the way, and it was nice that she hadn't received any pushback on it.

"Thank you," she said, "Also, I'm sorry that I was absent during such a difficult time. Is there any damage to our country from the remaining fragments of debris?"

"Our coastal patrols and radar spotted a few pieces that touched down in the ocean," he replied, "but there've been no impacts reported on land."

Cagalli smiled. "Thank goodness. What about elsewhere in the world? Has there been any news?"

"We've had some reports of bits of debris hitting the ground in North America and East Asia," said Unato, "but there's been no major damage so far."

Cagalli nodded. "I'm glad to hear it. It looks like Operation Redemption was a complete success."

"Operation Redemption?" asked Yuna.

"I'm sorry," said Captain Gladys, "That was the ZAFT codename for today's mission."

Unato nodded. "I see. The mission certainly did succeed in preventing loss of life on Earth. However, I'm afraid that's not the end of the matter. Captain Gladys, I'm sure you understand what comes next."

The Captain nodded, and Cagalli saw her eyes narrow. "Of course, prime minister. I know that our Supreme Council Chairman will be conducting a full inquiry into the matter, and I'd expect nothing less of Orb and other nations on Earth."

"An inquiry?" asked Athrun, clearly taken aback, "Why? We stopped the colony drop and took out all the radicals involved in the attempt!"

"Questions still need to be answered," said Yuna sharply, giving Cagalli's boyfriend a glare, "The entire world was put at risk and was on the brink of Armageddon. Do you really think that just because disaster was averted that the matter is settled?"

"We already know who the culprits are, and they were dealt with in the battle today!" Athrun shot back, "The Supreme Council Chairman himself admitted that they were remnants of the old regime, and ZAFT took responsibility and eliminated them!"

"That may be so," said Unato, "but there are still issues that need to be addressed. How were these remnants able to amass the force that they did? How were the able to acquire the technology required to move debris as large as the ruins of Junius Seven? I'm afraid that it will be quite some time before this matter can be put to bed."

"I'm sure that my nation will fully cooperate with any investigations carried out by Orb or other nations on Earth," said Captain Gladys.

Cagalli sighed. She'd been home for less than five minutes and already the mood had soured. She understood the need for the inquiries the others were discussing, but she was also well aware of how those could be twisted from fact-finding missions to political stunts. The fact that Unato and Yuna had so eagerly jumped on that did not bode well for the days ahead.

_I don't know what they're planning_, she thought, _but I won't let them play politics with this. If there has to be an investigation then I'll make sure Orb conducts one fairly and impartially._

She gave Captain Gladys a nod and an apologetic smile. "I appreciate your willingness to cooperate, Captain Gladys. I'm sure Chairman Durandal will echo the sentiment. With an open process and investigation I believe we can bring this affair to a reasonable conclusion."

The Captain nodded. "So do I, Lady Cagalli."

"In the meantime," said Unato, "there are other matters of state that must be attended to. Lady Cagalli, are you ready?"

"So soon?" asked Athrun, "Can't she at least rest a little? She's been through a lot this week."

"I wasn't aware that the bodyguard spoke for the master," said Yuna harshly, "I'm sure Cagalli can decide what she can handle without help from you."

Cagalli glared at him; there was only so much she'd tolerate from Yuna. "That's enough, Yuna! As my bodyguard it's his responsibility to look after my well-being. He was well within his right to say what he did!"

Yuna held up his hands in surrender, but the look on his face smacked of faux-apology. "I'm sorry, Cagalli. It won't happen again."

_Damn it_, she thought, looking at her boyfriend, _Athrun, you shouldn't have to put up with this crap. I'm so sorry for dragging you into this mess._

She put her arm on Athrun's and smiled. "I'll be okay, Athrun. Besides, you're the one that actually fought in the battle today. If anyone needs a break I'm sure it's you."

Athrun shook his head. "I'm all right, Cagalli. I'll stick by your side as long as you need me."

"I appreciate that," said Cagalli, "but really, get some rest. I know there're some friends that you should catch up with now that we're back."

Athrun nodded, and Cagalli was glad that he took the hint. With all that was going on in the world, not to mention everything that had happened today, it was important that he connect with other members of Terminal as soon as possible. Cagalli would've loved to join him, but with her governmental duties she feared it would be quite some time before she'd get a chance to do so."

"Okay," he said, "but if you need me, call me."

Cagalli nodded. "You got it."

….

Lunamaria's eyes widened at her sister's announcement. "Really? Are you serious?"

Meyrin smiled. "Yup. I just heard the Captain talking to Arthur on the bridge about it before I left. We're gonna get some shore leave!"

Lunamaria was practically beaming at the news. "That's awesome! Guys, did you hear that?"

They were in a lounge on the _Minerva _that was used by the regular crew as a place to relax between shifts. Supposedly it wasn't as nice as the space the officers and visiting dignitaries had access to, but it was fairly large and comfortable so Lunamaria definitely wasn't complaining. Shinn and Rey were there, along with Yolan from the hangar crews. Standing off to the side, leaning against a wall with his arms folded, was none other than Wufei.

Lunamaria wasn't sure why Altron Custom's pilot had decided to stick around, but despite the arguments she'd had with him up until now she actually didn't mind his presence. It meant that she would have more chances to prove herself to him, not to mention learn more about him; there was no way she could let things stand with that teaser he'd given up in orbit.

If Wufei was psyched at the thought of exploring Orb he certainly didn't show it. Lunamaria supposed that was par for the course when it came to him, and there was always the possibility that he was already familiar with the island nation. If that was the case then she wondered if he'd be willing to show her around later. If not, she could always ask Shinn to do that.

She saw Rey nod. "We heard that quite clearly, Lunamaria."

"That's great!" said Yolan, "I've always wanted to check this place out!"

"Me too!" said Meyrin, "There's supposed to be this big electronics district not too far from here! I can't wait to go there!"

Lunamaria turned to Shinn. "Shinn, this is your homeland, right? What are your favorite hot spots?"

She was rather taken aback to see him clench his teeth before getting up and heading for the door. "Sorry, I'm not interested."

"Huh?" said Lunamaria, raising an eyebrow, "Hey, Shinn! Wait!"

"Let him go," said Wufei as Shinn left the room.

Lunamaria turned to him, surprised at his input. "Why?"

"You can't tell?" said Wufei, his gaze lingering on the door Shinn had just left through, "This might be his homeland, but that doesn't mean he's thrilled to be back."

Lunamaria sighed. "Look, I know he's not exactly fond of Orb, but he lived here for a long time. He can't hate it _that _much."

"Why do you assume it's only hate that he feels?" said Wufei, "One's past can elicit a wide range of emotions. Thinking only one is at play here is overly simplistic."

Lunamaria folded her arms. "Fine, then. What's your bet?"

Wufei shrugged. "I don't know him as well as you do."

"That's a dodge," Lunamaria shot back, "Come on, you can do better than that."

Wufei nodded. "Fine. He's angry at being back here, sure, but if I had to guess it also hurts him to be here. Something happened that he holds Orb responsible for, whether it was in this land itself or somewhere else. Being here is probably dredging up some old memories that he'd rather keep buried."

That was a surprisingly thoughtful answer, one that Lunamaria did not have an easy answer for. From what Lunamaria knew Shinn had actually come to the PLANTs from Orb's Elysium colony, not the homeland itself. Still, given what had happened when the Earth Alliance had attacked that colony two years ago it wouldn't be too shocking that Shinn might be less than fond of his former country.

Lunamaria sighed. "All right, I guess that's fair. He could still be a little less moody about it."

"How he handles is his past is his choice and his alone," said Wufei, "He has to work through it one way or another though, otherwise he might not last too long as a mobile suit pilot."

Lunamaria's eyes narrowed. "What about you? From what you told me up in orbit a while back it sounds like you've got your own past issues to work out."

"I _have _worked them out," he replied sharply, "It's the future I'm trying to figure out now, and I don't care to discuss that in front of a crowd."

Lunamaria blushed; she'd completely forgotten that Meyrin, Rey, and Yolan were still in the room with them. "Right… sorry."

Wufei shook his head. "Don't worry about it."

There was an awkward silence before Yolan worked up the nerve to break it. "So… how long do you think we'll be staying in Orb?"

"Probably not too long," said Rey, "The Captain will want to get some maintenance done here, but there's no real reason for us to linger since Carpentaria's not too far away. I imagine we'll be basing out of there until the Defense Council or the Chairman recalls us to the homeland."

"I bet things are pretty tense back there right now," said Meyrin, "I mean, we just fought an entire fleet of holdouts from the old regime, and they tried to drop a colony onto Earth!"

"It won't just be your homeland that experiences tension," said Wufei darkly, "The whole world's on edge. This matter's far from over."

"What are you talking about?" asked Lunamaria, "We won, didn't we? We beat the radicals and stopped the ruins from falling. The world's safe again!"

"We removed one threat," said Wufei grimly, "but that's a short-term victory. The attempted colony drop and the attack on Armory One aren't simply battles; they're skirmishes in a much larger game. There are forces at work here, both in the open and behind the scenes. The way they see it, we're just pawns on the chessboard."

"You speak as though you've seen this sort of thing before," said Rey, giving Wufei a suspicious look.

The Gundam pilot simply nodded. "I have."

"What are you talking about?" asked Yolan.

Wufei closed his eyes for a moment before he spoke again, and when he did he struck Lunamaria as somehow being both here and somewhere very far away. "The endless waltz… even here, it continues onward. That's probably why he stayed…"

"Endless waltz?" asked Meyrin, raising her eyebrow, "I've never heard that term before."

"Me neither," said Lunamaria, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"History is cyclical," said Wufei, "Don't tell me you never noticed. War, peace, and revolution; they're the notes of an endless waltz conducted in three-four time. One way or another, humanity moves from one step to the next."

Lunamaria shook her head. "You're wrong. The Bloody Valentine War is over, and despite what's happened in recent days the Earth Sphere is still at peace. There's no reason for that to change!"

"_You're _the one who's wrong," said Wufei, giving her a dark glare, "The last war is over, yes, but peace has had its chance and failed. The incidents with Armory One and Junius Seven are no mere brushfires; they're the sparks of revolution. From there humanity's course is inevitable, regardless of what people like Lady Cagalli might try to do to stop it."

"You're forgetting Chairman Durandal," said Rey, "He will not stand idly by while your so-called 'endless waltz' plays out."

"Rey's right," said Yolan, "The Chairman can stop a new war from happening!"

Wufei chuckled. "Can he? Some things are beyond even the most powerful politicians. Authority, charisma, and cunning are powerful assets, but even they have their limits. If your Chairman wishes to prevent a wider war then I think he's very much facing an uphill battle."

"You'd be surprised with what he can accomplish," said Meyrin, "A lot of people were saying that a new colony out at L4 couldn't be built, but Chairman Durandal pushed ahead with the program and proved them all wrong."

"She's right," said Lunamaria, "Things might look dicey now, but if anyone can turn them around and forge a brighter path then it's Chairman Durandal."

If she was hoping for a major turnaround in Wufei's opinion she was sorely disappointed. The Gundam pilot simply shrugged.

"We'll see," he said.

A heavy silence fell over the room before Yolan broke it, just like before. "Well… I've got stuff to do. If you guys hear anything about the shore leave schedules, let me know. Later!"

Rey nodded. "I should go as well."

The two boys left, leaving just Lunamaria, Meyrin, and Wufei in the lounge. Meyrin looked awkwardly between the two of them, as if she was torn between trying to strike up another conversation or simply leaving.

"Well," said Meyrin nervously, "I guess I'll see you both later."

Lunamaria nodded. "Later, sis."

As her sister left the room Lunamaria turned to Wufei. "You know, you can be a real killjoy sometimes. We worked our butts off in the fight today, but the way you're talking you make it sound like it was all for nothing!"

Wufei shook his head. "Your victory was important, but every battle always takes place within a larger context. The end of an engagement sets the stage for future events, and inevitably that includes a new battle somewhere down the line. We managed to save the Earth from devastation today, but the fact that these radicals were able to threaten it at all despite losing power at the end of the last war raises questions that the nations of Earth will want answered."

"So what?" said Lunamaria, "The PLANTs will want those questions answered, too. The Supreme Council will probably have an investigation and then present their findings to the world."

"Perhaps," said Wufei, "but tell me; given the past animosity between the PLANTs and the Earth Alliance, do you think the latter will take the former's findings at face value? ZAFT did construct a weapon capable of ending all life on Earth in the last war, after all. Don't think that the nations on the surface of the planet have forgotten that."

_GENESIS_, she thought grimly, _Damn it, even after that thing's been reduced to bits of scrap it's still casting a shadow over everything._

She sighed. "Fine… I guess you have a point there. So they'll do their own investigations. There's no reason why the PLANTs wouldn't cooperate. They'll come to the same conclusions as the Supreme Council and things will settle down."

Wufei shook his head. "You're forgetting the attack on Armory One. That wasn't just to steal prototype mobile suits. Someone's out to fan the flames of war. The strike on the colony at L4 shot tensions through the roof, and the colony drop, even if it failed, will likely do the same. Remember, those same people that we fought at Armory One and in the Debris Belt were also present at today's battle, and they were trying to sabotage the drilling operation. Their agenda is renewed conflict, not continued peace. If there's a way that they can continue to stir things up, they'll find it. Regardless of the official investigation results there is still the potential for the situation to spiral out of control."

A shiver went down Lunamaria's spine. "What are you saying? You know how bad the last war was, right? Are you seriously telling me that there're people willing to reignite that kind of hell, who will stop at _nothing _to start a bloodbath like that?"

"There are always those who see war as the preferred means to their end," said Wufei, "That's been true as long as mankind has existed. They seek to start conflicts one way or another. They are the great instigators, and the rest of us get swept up in the hurricane."

She wanted to argue with him, but there was just a sense of certainty in his tone that Lunamaria found impossible to debate. It also carried the weight of experience; Lunamaria _knew _that he was speaking from what he'd seen and done in his past, regardless of the fact that she didn't have a clue as to _what _that past was.

"It's a vicious cycle," he continued, "Although… for some of us, it's the only way we know how to live. Spend enough time on the battlefield, and eventually that becomes more familiar than peace."

"And that's you?" asked Lunamaria quietly, "You feel like you belong on the battlefield?"

Wufei nodded. "I do. I know how wrong people find that, but I can't deny that it's the truth. So I have to make sure that I'm fighting for justice. That way I don't lose myself to the chaos."

Lunamaria nodded. "I… I see."

She didn't really get it, truth be told, but she had no idea what the right sort of response was to what he'd just said. A little over a week ago she'd never set foot on the battlefield before. How could she have any idea what it was like to know war better than peace?

"Wufei," she said hesitantly, "why didn't you join your friends when they descended to Earth? Why did you stay with us?"

"The _Minerva_'s been at the center of events ever since the attack on Armory One," he replied, "When the fighting starts up again I have no doubt that she'll be right in the thick of it. Here's where I have the best chance to fight and find justice."

"Really?" she said, raising an eyebrow, "That's it?"

Wufei closed his eyes for a moment. "Well… I suppose that's most of it. Not the entirety of it, but the majority."

Lunamaria folded her arms. "And what's the minority?"

Wufei smirked. "What, you think it's you?"

Lunamaria felt an unexpected surge of heat come rushing to her face. She _had _been thinking exactly that, although for the life of her she could not figure out why.

"Well…" she said, flustered and caught completely off guard, "I wasn't… I mean… it's not like I really thought you'd stick around just for me."

"No," said Wufei, "although… I suppose you _were _that other reason."

She didn't think it was possible for her face to get any hotter, but it was definitely making an effort at proving her wrong. "Wait… _what_?"

"You've got ears," he said, "You know what you heard."

"But… _why_?" she asked, trying very hard to regain her composure.

Wufei shrugged. "You've been trying to show me that you can grow as a pilot; that you want to reach my level. I want to see how far you can go... before you get yourself in over your head, anyway. I might even pass along a few pointers if you're lucky."

"Wait," said Lunamaria, "are you offering to _train _me?"

Wufei shook his head. "Don't get the wrong idea. I said I _might _give you a few tips. I never said anything about making you my pupil. I really just want to see how you'll progress. Knowing you I'll have to bail you out of trouble sooner or later."

Lunamaria's eyes narrowed. "You still don't think I can handle myself, is that it? Well I'm going to shove that elitist attitude of yours right down your throat. Just watch!"

"Whatever you say," Wufei replied before walking out of the room.

…

_That girl_, thought Wufei as he headed towards the _Minerva_'s upper deck, _She's got a lot of nerve…_

He kept playing their conversation over in his head as he travelled through the ship's corridors. His arguments about wanting to be at the center of the action to seek fulfillment and to fight for justice, along with seeing the _Minerva _as the means to do that, made sense to him. They fit in comfortably with whom he was and the sense of honor that had become so deeply ingrained in him over the years.

However…

…the girl was another matter.

He'd never admit it out loud, but Wufei knew that Lunamaria had played a bigger role in his decision than he'd let on earlier. She still wasn't the main reason he'd stayed, but she'd certainly factored into the decision, and he was still having trouble figuring out why.

Was he actually considering mentoring her? That was one thought, and it was the least crazy one as far as he was concerned. Her mobile suit might be a mass production model and she might still be a new pilot, but there was no denying that Lunamaria had some potential for growth. Wufei didn't think it would be to the level of a Gundam pilot, but there was certainly room for development for her. With greater experience and help from a seasoned veteran she could become a force to be reckoned with.

Still, did he really intend to take her under his wing? The notion of being a teacher was a very odd one for Wufei. He didn't know if he had the patience for that sort of thing. That being said, he still found that reason preferable to the other one that was in his mind.

_Damn it_, he thought as he stepped out onto the upper deck, _I came to this world to escape the old one, and that includes my past. So why…_

_ …why does that girl keep reminding me of __**her**__?_

The bustle of dockworkers and heavy machinery echoed all around him, but Wufei paid it so little mind that the noise might as well have not been there at all. The focus of the Gundam pilot was far too disciplined to be distracted by such a ruckus, even when the center of his intent was in his own mind rather than a target.

Their appearances were markedly different, but in terms of personality Lunamaria was far too much like another girl from Wufei's past for comfort. Her courage, her determination to fight, and her desire to prove herself to others… Lunamaria and _her _might as well have been long lost siblings despite the superficial differences, not to mention the gap between worlds. The two of them would've gotten along quite well, Wufei had no doubt of that.

It was too bad that the other girl had passed on long ago.

That may have contributed to another reason for Wufei sticking around; to make sure that Lunamaria didn't meet the same fate as _her_. When the new war broke out, and Wufei was quite certain that it was just a matter of time before it did, Lunamaria would still be on the _Minerva_, and if that ship was going to be at the center of the action then that meant that she would be too. Despite the arguments they'd had so far, Wufei was surprisingly determined to keep her alive, although he would never admit it to her.

_I didn't come to this world for a girl_, he thought, _I came here for the same reason that Heero stayed; to find a new purpose, and a new battlefield. Helping her is just something I'm doing on the side._

Looking out over the railing, he watched as the Morgenroete crews continued their work on the ship. Their country was officially neutral, but when the chips were down Wufei had to wonder if they'd be able to keep that stance. From the information Heero had shared with him Wufei knew that the nation had suffered considerably at the hands of the Earth Alliance as the price for not joining their campaign against the PLANTs. Their young Chief Representative seemed honest and courageous enough, but would other members of the country's ruling class be willing to stand by her when the superpowers of the world came calling and demanding their allegiance?

Wufei doubted it.

"The land of peace," he muttered, recalling the nickname Orb had in the Cosmic Era, "So was the Sanc Kingdom. They didn't last too long."

Orb had a full military as opposed to the old Sanc Kingdom's complete lack of forces or the short-lived reborn nation's small group of mobile suits, but against the might of the Earth Alliance and ZAFT it only meant that they'd be able to at least put up a fight before being consumed by one or the other. The Treaty of Junius Seven had placed official limits on the sizes of the forces wielded by the two superpowers, but those militaries still dwarfed what Orb could feel, and if what he'd seen in orbit over the past week was any indication then at minimum the Earth Alliance was fielding additional units off the books. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch of the imagination for ZAFT to have its own undeclared forces, and Wufei knew that even Cagalli was playing fast and loose with the treaty. Heero's Terminal group might not be an official part of the Orb military, but they had a strong if behind-the-scenes presence in the country and had the covert backing of not only the nation's ruler but also the core of its chief armaments manufacturer.

The world stood on the edge of a knife, whether it realized it or not. Orb was like any other neutral nation caught in the middle of an impending clash between the dominant powers; it was at the mercy of the whims of giants. The only difference was that its powerful military made it a much more desirable party, and if both sides hadn't begun courting the ruling elite yet Wufei was sure that it was only a matter of time before the backroom talks began… and that the country's idealistic leader would be completely blindsided by it.

_Treize_, he thought with a smirk, _you would've thrived in a world like this. People being manipulated left and right, the stage being set for a new conflagration. You definitely would've made your mark on this world._

_ Maybe I will, too._

….

"Thanks for bringing us along," said Kira from the back seat of the convertible.

Heero nodded as he took the black car around a gentle curve. "Don't mention it."

Glancing at the front passenger seat, he saw Murrue leaning back, a smile on her face as her long brown hair flowed in the wind. She'd changed out of her Orb military uniform before leaving the _Archangel_'s secret hangar and was now dressed in standard Morgenroete attire, but to Heero that didn't detract from her beauty in the least.

"It was the least we could do," said Murrue as she looked back at their two passengers, both of whom were dressed in civilian clothing, "I'm surprised the two of you didn't want to go straight back to Reverend Malchio's place."

Behind her, Lacus smiled. "We will in due time, but for now we thought it would be best to stay at the estate. There's so much going on in the world right now that I believe it is best for us to remain nearby."

"Besides," said Kira with a grin, "we can't pass up the chance to meet the other Gundam pilots."

"Three of them, at any rate," said Heero, "If nothing else, you'll find them to be interesting."

Murrue laughed. "It'd be hard not to considering that they're from your old world. If they could keep pace with you then they'd be anything but boring."

Heero smirked. "Can't argue with that."

_Duo's reaction alone to my relationship with Murrue will be worth all the trouble his entrance caused at Armory One_, he mused, _I really should try to catch that on camera. Even I can use a laugh sometimes._

Looking in the rearview mirror, he saw that Lacus had a wistful smile on her face as her long pink hair flowed in the wind. "I wish my father were able to meet them. I'm sure he would've enjoyed that as much as he would've liked to meet you, Heero."

Lacus had shown remarkable resilience in how she had carried the pain of her father's death over the past few years. For someone who looked so fragile on the outside, her inner strength truly was impressive. Heero could only wonder what her parents had been like. It was one thing to hear about them from Lacus and those that had fled the PLANTs along with her, but the chance to make his own first impression with them was tragically lost forever.

_I'm sure Duo and the others will draw comparisons between Lacus and Relena_, he thought as he took the convertible down a beachside road, _I know I did._

Glancing at Murrue, he saw her looking out at the shore and smiling. "What a lovely view. We got back to Orb at a great time, didn't we?"

It was hard to argue with that sentiment. The late afternoon sun beamed down on the sand and the sea. The waves practically sparkled in the light, and even with the wind from the moving car it was still quite warm. It was a stark contrast from the fierce battle that the four of them had been involved in just a few hours ago.

In the rearview mirror Heero saw two black sedans following not too far behind. Normally he would've been concerned, but those two vehicles had been with them since they'd left the docks and were carrying Andrew and Aisha Waltfeld, Dearka Elsman, Yzak Joule, and Flay Allster.

"Do you think Shemei and her girls will be at the estate by the time we get there?" asked Kira.

Heero shook his head. "The _Dominion_'s dock is a bit further away than the _Archangel_'s. I imagine they'll arrive a little bit after we do."

"Don't forget Eric, Natarle, and Mu," said Lacus, "I'm sure they want to meet the other Gundam pilots as much as the rest of us."

"Quite so," said Murrue with a smirk, "and I imagine they'll want to check out their mobile suits too. Heero, please tell me that your friends don't have their machines rigged to blow like you did when you first came here."

Heero shook his head. "We did while we were on board the _Minerva_, but when we got to the estate's hangar I told them that they didn't need to do that here. There's no risk of an accidental detonation here."

"That's a relief," said Kira, "Hey, what about Miriallia? Do you think she's made it off the _Minerva _by now?"

"Probably," said Heero, "Captain Gladys treated her well during her stay on the ship, and she has no reason to hold her. I bet she's on her way to the estate as we speak."

"Dearka will be pleased to see her again," said Lacus, "I know he was worried about her."

"We all were," said Murrue, "Her assignment wasn't an easy one."

"No," said Heero, "but it was one she pulled off very well. The changing situation forced her to improvise, but she was still able to keep her cover and continue to help us gather valuable intel."

"At least she's back in Orb now," said Lacus, "She's earned a break after the work she's done."

Kira nodded. "Agreed."

They were relatively quiet for the rest of the drive, which wasn't a very long one. Within minutes Heero could see their estate, and soon enough he was pulling the vehicle into the driveway and then into the large garage, with the other two cars close behind him. The garage door began to close as the last vehicle entered, and Heero was the first to get out of the car.

"Ah," said Murrue, stretching as she got out of the car after him and smiling as she looked around the garage, "It's so good to be home."

Heero nodded. "Yeah."

"Hopefully we can grab dinner soon," said Kira.

"We should wait until the others from the _Dominion _arrive and all the introductions have been made," said Lacus, "After that a meal would be lovely."

"Agreed," said Andrew as he stepped out of his vehicle.

"That does sound nice," said Aisha as she followed suit.

"Yeah," said Dearka as he got out of the back seat, "Fighting does help work up an appetite."

"So," said Yzak as he stepped out of the other car, "when do we get to meet the new pilots?"

"Yeah," said Flay as she hopped out of the passenger seat, "We've been looking forward to it ever since Heero said they'd arrived. Don't keep us waiting!"

"They're inside," said Heero as he turned to Murrue, "Shall we?"

She grabbed his hand and smiled. "Yes."

The two of them led the way into their home. Since the others had started eating as Heero had gone out the door earlier he knew that the most likely places to find them would either be in the living room or out on the large terrace that overlooked the beach. The Gundam pilot decided to start inside and then work his way out if he had to.

It was only a few seconds later that he could hear the voices of Duo, Quatre, and Trowa coming from down the hall, and Heero knew that he'd made the right decision. Coming around the corner, he found his three friends seated on one of the couches, while Akila and Soran Rehema were on another.

"…and that's how I talked Quatre into doing a keg stand," Duo was saying as Heero and the others entered the room, "In hindsight, that probably wasn't my smartest move. He really can't hold his booze."

"I can hold it just fine when I'm allowed to spread it out," said Quatre, folding his arms but still smiling, "Of course I'm going to throw up when you have me chug it like a college frat boy."

"Aw, come on," said Duo, punching him on the shoulder, "You know you had fun! That was one hell of a party!"

"And to think that we were celebrating Howard's birthday on that occasion," said Trowa dryly, "He didn't strike me as the type to go all out with a party like that."

Akila was laughing, and Soran looked like he was trying very hard not to join her. For his part Heero was pleased to see that his godparents were getting along so well with his old friends. It was a promising omen for what was to come.

"Well," said Soran, "it looks like we'll really have to pull out all the stops to make sure that parties in the Cosmic Era live up to the standards you set in your world."

"They weren't all like that," said Quatre, laughing, "Most of them were significantly more dignified."

"And they were boring because of it," said Duo with a smirk, "A party's not a party until you get completely shitfaced. Setting something on fire also helps."

"That better not include this place," said Heero, "I happen to like it being in one piece, you know."

His three friends turned around, looking quite surprised at his arrival. Of course, it didn't take them long to recover as they all stood up in greeting.

"Yo, Heero!" said Duo, "About time you showed up!"

"Good to see you," said Trowa.

"We've been having a nice chat with Mr. and Mrs. Akila," said Quatre, "They gave us a great tour of this place earlier. You've really got an impressive setup here!"

"Welcome back," said Akila as she and Soran stood as well, "It's good to see all of you in one piece."

"You have some very entertaining friends, Heero," said Soran with a chuckle, "I wish we'd gotten to meet them sooner."

"Speaking of friends," said Quatre as he nodded at Heero's group, "it looks like you've made quite a few since we last saw you, Heero."

"No kidding!" said Duo, "Man, when did you become so popular?"

"Probably comes with being the only Gundam pilot in this world until the rest of us showed up," said Trowa.

"I guess we really shouldn't be surprised," said Quatre with a smirk, "He dropped in here in the middle of a war, which was the best possibly way for him to make an impression. I just hope he didn't threaten to kill any of you first. He does that sometimes."

Duo shook his head and chuckled. "Yeah, that's Heero; death threats first, friendship later."

"I'll admit," said Murrue, smiling, "things were a little tense when we first met. We managed to come to an arrangement, though. One that I'm quite pleased with."

Duo smirked as he looked at Murrue. "If I were him I'd be pleased with it too. Leave it to Heero to meet a total babe and start things off on the wrong note. Had it been _me_ I think you would've been a little more impressed, miss…"

Murrue chuckled. "Murrue Ramius, Captain of the _Archangel_. I must say that I'm a bit surprised. I know Gundam pilots are bold, but it really takes nerve for one of them to try to flirt with me in front of my boyfriend."

Duo looked at the crowd in confusion. "Boyfriend? Where?"

Heero couldn't help but smirk. This was going to be _good_.

He looked at Murrue, who was clearly just as amused by the situation as he was. She met his gaze, and the mischievous look in her lovely brown eyes was quite promising.

"I think I'd better put you in your place, Maxwell," said Murrue as she leaned in towards Heero, "What do you say, love?"

"Wouldn't have it any other way," Heero replied as he accepted her invitation for a fierce kiss.

The warm moistness of her mouth and her aggressive tongue were worth more to Heero than all the money in the world no matter how many times he experienced them. It was even better this time because, while his attention was only on his lover, he was sure that Duo was now giving the two of them his undivided attention.

_All right_, he thought as their lips slowly parted, _time to survey the damage…_

Heero and Murrue looked at the three Gundam pilots, and he was not disappointed by what he saw. Quatre had his arms folded and a knowing smile on his face, while Trowa was smirking and shaking his head.

Their reactions paled in comparison to Duo's, though. The L2 native looked absolutely floored. It was quite rare to be able to render Deathscythe Omega's pilot speechless, but Heero and Murrue's public display of affection had certainly done the trick. If Duo's jaw dropped any further Heero was sure that it would fall right off his head and hit the floor, while his eyes looked wider than artillery shells.

"What's the matter, Maxwell?" said Murrue with a smirk, "I thought you were supposed to be a smooth talker. Cat got your tongue?"

Heero chuckled. "That's certainly one way to put it by the look of things."

Duo's mouth started moving, but no words came out. He was clearly struggling for words, and Heero was now really wishing that he was recording this.

"Duo?" said Quatre, waving a hand in front of his face, "Are you okay? Anybody home in there?"

"I think he's broken," said Trowa with no small amount of amusement, "Too bad Wufei's not here to see this."

"You…" Duo finally said, his finger going back and forth between Heero and Murrue, "and her… who… when… how?"

"Surely you can do better than that, Duo," said Akila with a laugh and a smile, "You were quite chatty earlier."

Soran chuckled. "Should we call a medic?"

"No, don't," said Quatre with a smirk, "You have no idea how rare it is to see him like this. We really need to enjoy it while it lasts."

"Hilde would get a kick out of it," said Trowa.

After what seemed like an eternity Duo shook his head and chuckled. "Well… that explains a few things. No wonder you said you weren't coming back…"

"That's right," said Heero firmly, "and that's not changing."

For a moment Heero thought Duo might pick up the argument they'd had about a week ago from where they'd left off, but to his relief his old friend smiled. "Well, if you'd told me earlier that you'd hooked up with a hot older woman then I wouldn't have given you such a hard time about it! You really need to work on your communication, Heero… unless that was intentional."

Heero smirked. "It was, actually."

Duo folded his arms. "Damn, that's cruel even for you, old buddy!"

"Perhaps," said Murrue as she put her arm around Heero, "but it was completely worth it just for your reaction, Maxwell."

"You can say that again," Quatre chimed in.

"Agreed," said Trowa.

Duo sighed. "Fine, everybody gang up on poor old Duo. I guess I did walk right into that one."

"So," said Heero, his eyes narrowing, "does that mean you accept what I told you earlier?"

Duo nodded. "Yeah, it does. I'll drop it, buddy. Although… I still find it hard to believe that you hooked up with a babe like your Captain here! You're really tapping that?"

"Say 'tapping that' again," said Heero, "and I'll kneecap you."

Duo chuckled. "I'm going to take that as a 'yes', then. Good for you, man! Always thought that you needed to get laid. Good thing my wife's not here; Hilde would slug me a good one for the way I've been talking the past few minutes."

Behind him Heero heard Aisha laugh. "Oh, I _like _this one, Andy."

The Desert Tiger chuckled. "Yeah. Talk about a real card, huh?"

"Must be the comedian of the group," said Yzak dryly, "He'll be trouble."

Flay giggled. "Ease up, Yzak. He's one of Heero's friends, remember?"

"Yeah," said Dearka, "but that doesn't mean that he won't be a handful."

"Good thing they're all on our side," said Kira.

"Indeed," said Lacus, "although I'm sure they all have their unique eccentricities if Heero serves as a good indicator."

"You guys know that I can hear you, right?" said Duo, "I'd at least like know who you all are before you start talking about me."

"As would I," said Quatre, "We're all on the same team now after all, right?"

"It would be nice to be properly acquainted," said Trowa.

Heero nodded and gestured to Murrue and the others. "Fair enough. You just met Murrue. This is Andrew and Aisha Waltfeld, Kira Yamato, Lacus Clyne, Yzak Joule, Flay Allster, and Dearka Elsman. We all met at one point or another during the Bloody Valentine War, and we're all part of the independent paramilitary organization Terminal."

"You three really can't imagine how excited we've been since Heero told us that you'd arrived in the Cosmic Era," said Murrue with a smile, "Back when we first met him we could hardly believe that Heero was from another world, and one that could make mobile suits as powerful as Wing Zero. When he told us about the rest of you during the last war it was quite a shock to learn that there were other pilots like him."

"We never thought you'd come over to our world quite like this," said Andrew, "Although we've all been hoping to meet you someday. Heero set the bar pretty high when he told us that you were each as good as him."

"No pressure," Aisha chimed in with a wink.

Duo chuckled. "So our rep got here before us, huh? I'm good with that!"

"I'm a bit surprised," said Quatre, "Heero's a hard guy to get to open up."

"Perhaps you boys were just going about it wrong," said Murrue as she kissed Heero on the cheek, "Some things require a woman's touch, after all."

_I won't argue with that_, thought Heero with a smirk.

He saw Trowa chuckle. "I wonder if that'll work with Wufei."

_Indeed_, Heero mused, _Lunamaria Hawke got close to Wufei rather quickly giving the limited time and his aloof nature, at least if his behavior concerning her during the past two battles is anything to go by. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out._

"It's too bad he did not join you in coming here," said Lacus, "It would've been nice to meet him as well."

"He's the one with the green Gundam, right?" asked Kira, "He seemed like a really talented fighter."

Duo laughed. "Sure, Wufei's got the moves on the battlefield, but people skills? Not much talent there."

"I'm sure you'll get to meet him eventually," said Quatre, "Wufei just does things differently from the rest of us. He'll rejoin us sooner or later."

"Well," said Murrue, "in the meantime I think we've got enough of a crowd. Why don't we all take a seat? I'm sure there's a lot for all of us to talk about."

"Roger that," said Heero.

….

Taking a sip from his cup of coffee, Quatre smiled as he savored the flavor. It had been brewed by the Desert Tiger, and the Gundam pilot had to admit that the ex-ZAFT Field Marshal certainly had a talent for this sort of thing.

_I'll have to ask him for the recipe_, he thought, _Rasheed and the rest of the Maganac Corps would definitely like this._

The smile wasn't just from the good coffee. Everyone was relaxing in the living room of Terminal's estate, and at the center of it all was none other than Heero. He was still as calm and centered as ever, but he'd definitely become more talkative and outgoing since he'd left the After Colony world over two years ago. Watching his old friend, Quatre was now solidly convinced that the incident with the Barge reactor that had started this whole chain of events had ultimately been for the best. Heero had saved the Earth Sphere of After Colony one last time before journeying to a new world and not only saving that one but also meeting a host of new friends, not to mention a woman to build a new life with.

Quatre might not have been the most intimidating of the Gundam pilots, but he was definitely at the top of the pack when it came to understanding people. Heero had clearly opened up to Murrue in a way that he'd never opened up to Relena in his old world. Perhaps if he had stuck around his old world and had more time, or if his and Relena's lives hadn't been on such different paths, there might have been a chance for the two of them, but once he'd come to the Cosmic Era and met Murrue it was obvious that the Captain of the _Archangel _had forged a very deep and meaningful connection with Heero and had done so quite quickly. The bond between the two of them was now impossible to sever, and Quatre wouldn't even make an attempt at it.

_He's happy here_, thought Quatre as he observed Heero holding Murrue's hand while the two of them exchanged a bit of affectionate banter, _This wasn't his world at first, but he's _made it_ his. Our mission really was doomed from the beginning. Sure, we found him, but we'll never get him to return to our world with us. We'll just have to make peace with that._

Fortunately it seemed that the biggest obstacle to that had neutralized itself. Quatre had been worried about Duo ever since the meeting with Heero in the conference room of the _Minerva _about a week ago, but his reaction to Heero's relationship with Murrue had been surprisingly positive. Whatever Duo's earlier stance on bringing Heero home had been, the L2 native seemed to have let it go. If that was the case then the hardest part about their mission now would simply be getting home and explaining why they hadn't brought Heero with them to the others.

Quatre could worry about those later, though. Right now he was simply a guest in Heero's new home and getting know the Perfect Soldier's new friends. There was no need to worry about the future at the moment. As Duo was fond of saying, they'd figure that out when got to it.

It was interesting to observe the dynamics between everyone. The established couples weren't hard to pick out. Apart from Heero and Murrue, there was Kira and Lacus, Yzak and Flay, Akila and Soran, and Andrew and Aisha. Dearka might've seemed like the odd man out at first, but from snippets that he'd heard so far Quatre knew that his girlfriend was the young woman Heero had introduced to them as Miriallia and had been going under the alias Marilyn Peterson during their time on the _Minerva_. He assumed that she would be showing up soon enough.

Miriallia clearly wasn't the only person missing from the crowd. From the way the others were talking it seemed that more arrivals were imminent, particularly regarding the pilots and commanding officer of the _Dominion_. Quatre was looking forward to meeting them face to face as well, with one particular face immediately jumping into the forefront of his mind.

_Lan Zhao_, he thought, slightly blushing as he replayed his interactions with her during the battle earlier today in his head, _She seemed rather… enthusiastic. I mean, I know I saved her life, and she quickly returned the favor… well, at least she appears to be a friendly woman. It should be interesting when she arrives._

Looking at his old friends and new acquaintances, Quatre saw that their gazes all appeared to be on him. Quatre was puzzled until he realized that they were actually looking past him. Turning around, his eyes widened as he saw a group of five women and two men had entered the room behind him, all wearing Morgenroete attire. He immediately zeroed in on one of the women… one clearly of Chinese descent.

_Speak of the devil_, he thought, _That was quick…_

His eyes met hers, and he saw that they had a very playful light in them. The smile on her face struck him as downright flirtatious. Her pale skin was a lovely contrast with her raven hair, which was tied up in a ponytail. Quatre couldn't help but take a good look at her lithe figure, one that wore her outfit quite well even if it was the exact same one as her friends had on.

Her smile became a smirk, and Quatre felt his face heat up as he realized that he'd been caught staring. Fortunately she didn't seem to be offended. Quite the contrary if the look in her eyes was any indication…

_I really wish I'd asked my sisters for feminine advice before coming to this world_, he thought, _or paid more attention to Duo whenever he talked about dating Hilde. I get the feeling that I'm a bit out of my league here…_

As if the Chinese beauty eyeing him like a panther wasn't enough, the rest of the women with her were no slouches themselves when it came to the beauty department. The woman with the blonde hair tied up in a ponytail and gentle green eyes, whom Quatre recognized from the material Heero had given him as Priscilla Dalca, had a rather bookish sense about her that was nonetheless quite attractive; 'smart cute' was the way that one of his sisters had described that sort of look to him before. A good contrast to her was Adaline Bellerose, whose long and flowing red hair and dark blue eyes went quite well with a body that was quite clearly in tip top shape, and Quatre thought that she would not look out of place on a soccer field or some other sporting event.

The two older women behind the three girls were _very _attractive in their own right, but they were also clearly taken. The firm beauty that was Natarle Badgiruel had her arm looped through Mu La Flaga's, while the exotic and fierce Shemei Bristow was leaning into her husband, Eric.

Not knowing what else to do, Quatre raised his hand and smiled. "Hello, there."

Lan Zhao's smile only seemed to grow, as did the light in her dark brown eyes. "Hello yourself, handsome!"

Adaline elbowed her in the ribs. "Down, girl."

Priscilla giggled. "Too late for that."

"You'll have to forgive her," said the Valkyrie as she and her husband moved to the front of the group, "Lan gets a little hot under the collar when it comes to cute badass pilots. The fact that you saved her life earlier today certainly earned you some points, and not just from her. Thanks for keeping my little pixy from biting the dust, Quatre."

Lan blushed. "Boss, I told you not to call me that!"

Quatre couldn't help but laugh. "You're welcome. Besides, she saved my life too, so I owe her one."

Eric chuckled. "You shouldn't have said that. Now she'll be trying to think of a way to make you pay up."

"Already got a few in mind," said Lan with a wink.

"Don't let her intimidate you," said La Flaga with a smirk, "You're a Gundam pilot, right?"

"Feel free to play hard-to-get with her," said Natarle with a smile, "Don't make things easy on her!"

"As long as it keeps things interesting," said Lan as she moved forward and leaned against the couch, looking down at Quatre with a grin that was damn near predatory, "I'm all for a good hunt."

"Perhaps you can save the flirting for later," said Murrue, looking rather amused at Quatre's situation, "Apart from Lan, the rest of you have our guests at a disadvantage. I think proper introductions are in order."

"Good point," said the Valkyrie, "I'm Shemei Bristow. I'm the head of Terminal's Valkyrie Team. Lan's one of my pilots, and Adaline and Priscilla are the others. The tall, dark, and handsome one here is my husband, Eric."

"Nice to meet you," said Quatre with a smile.

"Hey," said La Flaga, gesturing with his thumb at Eric, "how come he gets to be the tall, dark, and handsome one?"

"Because you're the one with the roguish charm," said Natarle as she kissed him on the cheek.

La Flaga chuckled. "All right, I'm good with that."

"You're the one that was flying the upgraded Epyon, right?" asked Trowa.

Shemei nodded. "Guilty as charged."

"Man," said Duo, "that thing looks like a real piece of work. Gotta say, you handled it pretty well."

Shemei smiled. "High praise coming from one of Heero's old comrades. Thanks, Maxwell."

Quatre nodded at La Flaga. "You're the pilot of the modified Tallgeese, correct?"

The blond man nodded and smiled. "Yup. Name's Mu La Flaga. I've got Heero to thank for that beast of a machine."

"I thought as much," said Trowa, "The addition of Planet Defensors to the unit was an interesting touch."

"Wonder what Zechs would think of that?" asked Duo.

"Seeing as he moved on to the Epyon later in the war I don't think he'd really care one way or the other," said Heero.

"Another machine that we have your world to thank for," said Natarle, "Heero's given us one surprise after another."

"The new Epyon was flying from your battleship, right?" Quatre asked.

The black haired woman nodded. "Yes. By the way, I'm Natarle Badgiruel, Captain of the _Dominion_. Believe it or not I actually used to be Murrue's XO when I was on the _Archangel_."

"And a very capable one at that," Murrue chimed in, "When the Earth Alliance assigned her to the _Dominion _we wound up on opposite sides of the battlefield, but we were able to get her to join our cause during the final battle of the last war."

Natarle smiled. "And kill Azrael in the process. It felt _very _good to space his corpse after the fighting was done."

"I'll say," said Flay with a shiver, "I'm glad he's gone."

Yzak put his arm around her shoulder. "That makes two of us. Wish I could've killed him myself… but since Heero got him at least I know the job was done right."

"I did some reading on him earlier in the week," said Quatre, "I don't think we ever ran into anyone like him back in our world."

"Doesn't surprise me," said Lan, "That son of a bitch was a monster in a league of his own. Well, him, Patrick Zala, and Rau Le Creuset. They're all dead and they still have a lot to answer for."

The mischievous and flirty demeanor she'd shown earlier had fallen away, and Quatre was given a new look at the woman who had put him rather off balance since their encounter in the battle earlier that day. There was no smile and no devious glint in those brown eyes of hers. She'd gone from a 'pixy' as the Valkyrie had called her earlier to a rather dark and serious mood. It was a very striking contrast, and one that told Quatre that there was much more to this woman than just her fun side.

It only lasted for a few seconds though. Before he knew it Lan had a friendly smile on her face, and her excited gaze was focused once again on Quatre.

"But, enough about those guys," she said, gracefully sliding over the back of the couch and plopping down right next to Sandrock Saladin's pilot, "Talking about a bunch of dead homicidal maniacs is a real buzz kill, don't you think?"

Quatre met her smile with a nervous one of his own. "You've got a point."

"That she does," said Shemei as she led the rest of the crowd around the couch and they all found places in the living room, "We're not here for the monsters of the past. We're here because you three are old friends of Heero, and you'd better believe that we've got a _lot _of questions!"

"So it's a friendly interrogation, then?" asked Trowa with a smirk.

"Hey," said Duo with a grin, "if we get to brag about all the ass we kicked in our last war, then I'm all for it!"

"Would that include the time when I stole parts from your Gundam to fix mine?" asked Heero, "Because if we're talking about ass kicking then I'm pretty sure that I kicked yours back then, even if it was through indirect means."

Duo folded his arms and glared at Heero. "That was a cheap shot and you know it! The only reason you got away with it is because I was sleeping!"

Quatre couldn't help but laugh.

This was going to be fun.

….

"This is crazy!" cried Cagalli as she slammed her fists into the table.

The last thing she could be described as having right now was fun. Orb's Chief Representative was stuck in a conference room with both her assembled government ministers and representatives from the other major noble families. Meetings like these were a regular occurrence for her, one that Cagalli had grudgingly accepted as necessary to her duties as the leader of her nation, and they were all the more important in the wake of the momentous clash that had taken place in orbit earlier that day. However, that didn't mean that she had to like them, especially given what her uncle and her cousin had just brought up.

"You want to _sanction _the PLANTs?" she yelled indignantly, "Their military was crucial in thwarting the attempted colony drop! ZAFT helped save the world! What the hell is wrong with you?"

Her administrative aide, a raven-haired woman in her mid twenties, put a hand on Cagalli's arm. "Lady Cagalli, please calm down!"

Cagalli took a deep breath to try to center herself. It was times like this that she wanted Athrun by her side, and she regretted sending him away even if it had been to shield him from the nastiness of the political reality she had to deal with. If anyone could help her keep her cool, it was him.

_I figured this meeting would be bad_, she thought, _but _this_? What the hell is going on?_

She glared at her prime minister and his son, but when she spoke again Cagalli was much calmer. "At the docks when the _Minerva _returned me to Orb earlier today you spoke of the need for an inquiry. I understand the need for that, but that inquiry hasn't even officially started and you're talking about sanctions against the PLANTs. This is both premature and highly irresponsible."

"I understand your concern, Lady Cagalli," said Unato, "but a traditional inquiry may not be enough for this situation."

"The world was brought to the brink of ruin today," said Yuna, "Billions of people across the planet could've been killed. The citizens are justly outraged and will demand both answers and accountability, Lady Cagalli."

"I'm aware of the tense state of global affairs and the anxiety of the people," Cagalli replied, "but you're talking about passing judgment before a proper investigation has even started, let alone produced evidence and conclusions. Are you telling me that the Orb Union's afraid to perform its due diligence under pressure?"

"The pressure does not just come from our own people," said Unato, his eyes narrowed to a razor sharp edge, "The Earth Alliance, particularly the Atlantic Federation, is already talking about punitive action."

"We have to look at the way the wind is blowing," said Yuna, "Our embassy in Washington D.C. is already reporting protests outside both the White House and the embassy of the PLANTs."

"The Atlantic Federation is where anti-Coordinator sentiment runs strongest," Cagalli swiftly countered, "Of course there will be extremists demanding action without a meaningful investigation. The bigots in North America have a lot of nerve to demand action against the PLANTs when their nation's own fleet didn't muster as much as a single ship to try and stop the fall of Junius Seven! It seems to me like they should be marching against their own military instead of ZAFT right now!"

"Be that as it may," Unato replied, "the fact is that it was not the Earth Alliance that allowed its ships and mobile suits to be stolen. At minimum this is a sign of gross negligence on the part of ZAFT, and the fact that the terrorists were able to amass such a large force… well, others might draw more drastic conclusions."

Cagalli glared at him. "Are you saying that there are people who actually believe that the PLANTs _purposely _allowed the radicals to acquire those ships and mobile suits so they could carry out their plot?"

"That's one of the theories floating around," said Yuna, "It may just be one of many fringe conspiracies people are imagining, but the fact that such a theory is out there at all shows just how bad the situation is."

"The enemy force was comprised of forty ships," said Unato, "The ZAFT fleet is far larger, yet the task force they sent to stop the terrorists was numerically inferior. Some people might interpret that as a rather half-hearted attempt to thwart their plan… or even just an act to convince the world that the Coordinators were trying to save the world when they might actually have been in league with the terrorists. There are those who even believe that the terrorists may have sympathizers among Orb's Coordinator population."

Cagalli slammed her fists on the table. "That's enough! Do you have any idea how many ZAFT soldiers, all of them Coordinators, gave their lives today to save us all? I refuse to let their memory be dishonored because of crank theories and fear mongering, and I won't let members of our own population be lumped in with terrorists just because of their genes!"

"A noble gesture," said Yuna with a smug smirk on his face, "but we have to consider every possibility, Cagalli."

Cagalli shook her head. "The inquiry will go ahead as planned, and we will wait for the committee to present its findings before we pass any judgment. Regardless of public opinion or foreign pressure, Orb will _not _act until we know the truth of this matter. _Is that understood?_"

Unato slowly nodded, but the gesture did little to convince Cagalli that she had truly swayed him. "As you wish, Lady Cagalli."

_How did we get into this mess?_, thought Cagalli, _How did my country's politics come to this? These sorts of conspiracy theories would never have been entertained under my father's administration. What's happening to Orb?_

This was a land where both Naturals and Coordinators were supposed to be equals under the law, yet the Seirans and other members of her government seemed all too ready to assume the worst about Coordinators. Cagalli was determined to stand as a bulwark between them and those who truly needed her protection, but political maneuvering was far from her strong suit. She had no idea what Unato and Yuna had planned, and she feared what they might spring on her next.

"Now," she said, "is there any other business that needs attending?"

Unato shook his head. "That will be all for now, Lady Cagalli."

"You should get some rest," said Yuna with a smile, "I'm sure you could use some after everything that you've been through today."

His concern was far too superficial for her liking, but Cagalli could not deny that her cousin had a point. "In that case, I think I'll retire for the evening. I expect to be kept updated regarding developments with both the inquiry and any other fallout related to today's incident, is that understood?"

"Of course, Lady Cagalli," said Unato.

Cagalli nodded. "Good. This meeting is adjourned. I will see you all tomorrow."

Her assembled nobles, ministers, and aides began filing out of the conference room. However, Cagalli did not fail to notice Yuna lingering, sharing a brief nod with his father as the elder Seiran went out the door but not leaving himself.

_So much for getting a little time to myself_, she thought wearily.

Eventually it was just the two of them as Yuna closed the door behind the last person to depart before turning to Cagalli. "Good, now we have a chance to talk in private."

Cagalli sighed. "Yuna, now is really not the time. I'm tired, all right? Can't it wait until tomorrow?"

"There's no need to worry, Cagalli," said Yuna with a smile, "This won't take long."

Cagalli looked out the window, deliberately avoiding his gaze. "What do you want?"

"Come now, Cagalli," said Yuna as he joined her by the window, "I'm simply concerned about you. You have been through a lot lately, after all."

"And you and your father are not helping with that," said Cagalli, "Orb needs to conduct a proper investigation into the attempted colony drop, not turn it into a witch hunt against Coordinators. We're not the Atlantic Federation, but you and your father seem to think otherwise."

Yuna put his hand over his heart. "Cagalli, that hurts! You know that father and I only want what's best for our country."

"By making decisions based on nothing more than hysteria and conspiracy theories?" said Cagalli, glaring at him, "I hardly think that enacting sanctions before an inquiry is complete qualifies as what's best for the Orb Union."

Yuna sighed. "Cagalli, you know it's not that simple. Orb suffered greatly during the last war because we refused to side with the Earth Alliance. We have to take steps to prevent that from happening again."

Cagalli folded her arms. "There won't be another war, Yuna. If you and your father would give diplomacy and due process time to work we can go a long way towards putting this crisis behind us."

Yuna shook his head. "That would be nice, but it doesn't look like the Atlantic Federation is particularly willing to do that."

"It's early," Cagalli replied, "and given that Blue Cosmos and its sympathizers still call the Atlantic Federation home it's no surprise that panic is stronger there than anywhere else. The Earth Alliance may be talking about punitive action, but from what I understand they haven't actually taken any concrete steps yet. They're just talking tough to shore up support from their base voters. It's still early, and the diplomatic process still has time to go through its natural course."

Yuna smiled, but there was something about it that kept Cagalli from finding any measure of comfort in it. "I hope you're right."

Cagalli nodded. "This is the action that father would've taken. The Orb Union will not be ruled by fear and demagoguery. We stand for fairness and equality, and I will not let my country abandon those ideals just because of what happened to us in the past."

"Bold words," said Yuna, "I'm sure your father would be proud."

Cagalli sighed; she did not particularly care for her cousin's flattery at the moment. "Was there anything else you wanted, Yuna?"

Yuna smiled again. "Well, it's been quite some time since you and I have gotten the chance to talk like this. I was hoping we'd have time to catch up."

"I'm really not in the mood for that, Yuna," said Cagalli wearily.

"Just a few minutes, Cagalli!" said Yuna, "Surely that won't hurt!"

Cagalli shook her head. "It's not a matter of harm, Yuna. I've had a _very _long day. I need to rest."

"I understand that," said Yuna, "I promise this won't take long at all!"

Cagalli sighed in resignation; clearly he wasn't going to let her go. "Fine, but _just _a few minutes."

Yuna nodded. "Of course! I must say, you've certainly kept yourself busy recently, and that's not counting the trip to L4."

"I'm the leader of our country, Yuna," said Cagalli, trying to keep the exasperation out of her voice, "I'm always busy. I don't have time to relax at one of numerous estates or penthouses like you do."

"Cagalli!" said Yuna, the feigned hurt in his voice all to obvious, "It almost sounds like you're accusing me of caring more about my noble privilege than our great country!"

"Prove me wrong," said Cagalli, "I may have disagreements with your father, but at least he actually works at running the country."

Yuna folded his arms and smirked. "Well, for your information I happen to be far more active in affairs of state than you realize."

"How so?" asked Cagalli, quite skeptical of his claims.

"I've been observing military training exercises," he said, "and partaking in simulated strategic exercises. I'm quite gifted, if I do say so myself."

Cagalli had to resist the urge to laugh. "You mean you play war games on a computer. That hardly makes you a real military leader."

Yuna chuckled. "You can think what you will, Cagalli, but I assure you that I'm quite the strategist."

_Please_, Cagalli thought, _I'd like to see you last longer than five minutes against the strategists _I _know. Andrew Waltfeld and Eric Bristow would eat you alive…_

"I'll take your word for it," she said, "I fail to see how you playing strategy games and watching military exercises contributes to our country."

"Why, that's easy!" said Yuna, "If there's another conflict then my insights will help shape our military campaigns!"

"Is our military brass aware of your plan to involve yourself with matters of defense?" asked Cagalli.

"Of course," said Yuna, "Father cleared it with them."

That was a troubling revelation. The Orb Union's military, particularly the officer corps, prided itself on being above the political jostling of the ruling families and the various ministers. If Unato had made moves to get Yuna access to defense planning and military doctrine beyond what someone in his position would normally be allowed then it meant that her prime minister was doing far more to challenge her power over the armed forces than Cagalli had originally feared.

_This is the last thing I need_, she thought, _I just hope Kisaka and the others can find a way to sideline him._

Picking a fight with her cousin about it now would not accomplish anything, so Cagalli simply nodded and did her best to keep her expression neutral. "I see. I'll trust the prime minister's judgment, then."

Yuna smiled. "Excellent! I knew that you would see the wisdom behind this. When war starts up again I will be at the forefront of our strategic efforts. You'll see then what my contributions to our country are!"

Cagalli sighed. "There won't be a war, Yuna. How many times do I have to tell you that?"

Yuna nodded. "Sorry, Cagalli. I know you'll do everything you can to keep Orb on the path of peace."

_I will_, she thought, _no matter what you or your father try to do._

"Look at us now," Yuna continued with a smile, "Just a few years ago we barely had any role in our nation's politics. Our fathers dominated everything. Now we have power of our own and are making a difference. I'm sure your father would be proud of you."

Cagalli nodded, refraining from pointing out the rather public role she had played in Orb's political affairs just two years ago in the war. "I hope so."

"You know," said Yuna with a smirk, "there's another way that we could make our fathers proud."

Cagalli eyed him carefully. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't tell me you've forgotten!" said Yuna, "Cagalli, I know you've been busy, but surely you remember the arrangement that our fathers made back before the war."

Cagalli glared at him. She knew exactly what he was referring to and she was determined to shoot it down at once.

"That was an arrangement that died with my father," she said firmly, "It no longer has any meaning, and it was a mistake to begin with."

"I think you're being unreasonable, Cagalli," Yuna replied, "Nowhere in that agreement did it state that the death of your father or mine would render it null and void."

"Well it didn't say that it wouldn't, either," Cagalli shot back, "Yuna, we were both way too young when our fathers came up with this idea, and it was purely a political stunt. Your father hasn't touched it since mine died two years ago. Why are you bringing this up now?"

"Because the Orb Union looks like it will be facing some rather difficult times in the near future," said Yuna with a smile, "The ruling families will need to show strength and unity, both at home and abroad, if our country is to survive and prosper. Our fathers understood that, which is why even two years after Lord Uzumi's death I feel like the arrangement him and my father came to is still both valid and reasonable."

Cagalli folded her arms and looked out the window. "I'm sorry, but it's not happening."

Yuna glared at her. "You know, I didn't want to say this in front of the others, but I think you've grown rather shortsighted lately. You claim to speak for all of the Orb Union and want what's best for our country, but I think what you really want is what's best for your Coordinator boyfriend."

Cagalli turned on him, and though she didn't have a mirror she was sure the fury blazing in her eyes was quite visible. "That's too damn far, Yuna! I've worked my ass off for the past two years for _all _of my people, Natural and Coordinator! I never _wanted _to rule this country, but I _will _do so in order to protect and serve _all _of its citizens!"

Yuna raised his hands. "I'm sorry, Cagalli! I didn't mean to offend you!"

Cagalli took a deep breath, but she could not stop her heart from hammering with barely contained rage. She had to end this before she did something drastic.

"Yuna," she said carefully, "I think that's enough 'catching up' for the day. I need to get some rest."

Yuna nodded, but the insufferably smug smirk on his face did not help matters. "Of course, Cagalli."

He turned to leave, and as he did so Cagalli gave him a warning. "Yuna? Don't _ever _drag Athrun into our politics again. If you do then I swear I _will _make you regret it, and not even your father will be able to stop me."

Yuna bowed, but that smirk did not leave his face. "I understand, Cagalli. I hope you rest well."

As soon as the door shut Cagalli went over to the conference table and slammed her fist into it. "Damn it! God fucking damn it!"

_I __**hate **__this job!_

….

Checking the time, Talia smiled when she saw that her watch was finally over. Between Operation Redemption and coordinating maintenance with the Orb dock crews Talia had been on duty for far longer than an average work day, and some rest was definitely in order.

She stood up and looked at the relief officer that had stepped in when Arthur's shift had ended earlier. "I'm leaving. The bridge is yours."

The officer, a young man in his late twenties with short cropped brown hair and blue eyes, nodded. "Aye, Captain."

She quickly left the bridge. As she went through the exit and the door closed behind her she took a moment to sigh with relief.

_What a day_, she thought, _and I still have my report to write up. Well… I suppose it can wait until tomorrow. The Defense Council will bristle at the delay, but I doubt Durandal will let it ruffle his feathers. Nothing else seems to these days…_

As she headed through the corridors towards her quarters she found herself thinking about the country her ship was in now. Talia would be more comfortable if the _Minerva _was at ZAFT's Carpentaria base as opposed to an Orb Union dock, but the work crews had behaved very professionally so far. As far as Talia had been able to tell the technicians had focused on basic maintenance; if any of them were trying to glean insight into the inner workings of the battleship they would have a rather hard time doing that with the vessel's crew looking over their shoulders. At least they hadn't needed to touch down in Earth Alliance territory. With the way tensions had been ratcheting up since the attack on Armory One, such an event would've only served to needlessly aggravate the situation.

Talia did not consider herself to be particularly adept at politics, but she was far from ignorant on the subject. If an inquiry had not already started in the PLANTs then it soon would, and the same went for the Orb Union and the nations that made up the Earth Alliance. She could always hope that the respective investigative commissions would handle the matter dispassionately and professionally, but Talia was not inclined to take that bet.

_The playbook's all too familiar_, she thought, _The Supreme Council's inquiry will cast ZAFT in a favorable light, and while it's true that we launched Operation Redemption to stop the colony drop that does not change the fact that it was decommissioned war material from our forces that was used in the attack by the terrorists, not to mention the fact that said terrorists were all Coordinator radicals. We did not try to drop the colony, but our intelligence services could've done more to pick up on this plot and give the chance to act against it sooner. As for the Earth Alliance… well, I can hardly speak for the Eurasian Federation or the Republic of East Asia, but given that the Atlantic Federation is the birthplace of Blue Cosmos I doubt their commission results will reflect too kindly on ZAFT._

The only wild card in this situation would be the Orb Union. Talia was sure that Cagalli would speak in ZAFT's favor after Operation Redemption, but based on the confrontation she'd had with her fellow nobles at the dock the _Minerva_'s Captain could tell that other leaders of Orb might not share her views. The Orb Union's traditionally neutral stance meant that its word carried considerable weight when it came to disputes between the Earth Alliance and the PLANTs, so whatever the results of their inquiry were could have very serious repercussions.

Talia shook her head. All of that was beyond her ability to control now, so there was little point in worrying about it. She would simply have to watch over her crew and wait for the chance to leave the Orb Union and head for Carpentaria. Her crew had been promised some shore leave in the meantime, and Talia wanted to make sure that they got the chance to enjoy themselves a little bit after all that they had been through.

_Shinn's got some history here_, she thought, _but the others don't, at least to my knowledge. It'll be a good experience for them to see another country up close like this. As for me, well…_

_ …there're too many old memories here._

Talia sighed. She'd tried to avoid letting her thoughts go in that direction, but given her own personal history with this country that just wasn't possible. Talia had held off those memories for most of the day, but now that she was off duty it was much harder to keep herself distracted and leave the past alone.

_How many years has it been?_, she thought, _Six? Seven? Too long, either way. Would he even recognize my voice?_

As she entered her quarters she found herself going towards the desk. Her eyes lingered on the phone, and she started wondering if an old number might still work.

_No_, she thought as she sat down, _don't do this. It'll only end badly, and you can't afford this sort of distraction right now._

Despite her doubts she still found herself picking up the phone and dialing. Her heart was hammering even faster now that it had been during the battle earlier today, and Talia would much rather go through that whole fight again than do what she was doing now.

The phone rang, and Talia hoped that it would simply go to voicemail. However, there was the telltale click of someone answering, followed by a male voice that she hadn't heard in a long time.

"Hello? Who is this?"

Talia thought for sure her voice would catch in her throat, but somehow she was still able to reply. "Adam? Is that you?"

The other voice quickly sighed. "It's you… I thought I told you not to speak to any of us after what happened."

"Adam, please," she said, fighting to keep control over her voice, "I just… I just want to hear his voice. Please…"

"I'm sorry," he replied, "but no. He's been happy these past several years, Talia. He doesn't need you."

"I'm his _mother_!" she cried, "I have the right to speak to him!"

"The rest of his family decided otherwise," Adam said firmly, "You should've known better than to do this. Goodbye, Talia."

"Adam, wait!" she said, but it was too late; he'd already hung up.

Talia closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. She took a deep breath to try to calm herself; she refused to break down, even though no one could see her in here.

_I should've known better_, she thought, _I did know better, but I still did it. After how it ended, I was a fool to think that he would let me speak to him. But, still…_

_ …I miss him._

She sighed. Regardless of how much it hurt, she had to bury those old feelings. Perhaps someday she would be able to speak to her son, but now clearly was not the time. An old family had cut her off, but she had another to care for now; her crew. Whether they were aware of it or not they were in the middle of a potentially volatile geopolitical situation. The colony drop may have been stopped, but they were by no means out of the woods yet. As Captain it was her duty to do everything in her power to bring her crew back to friendly territory in one piece.

Shaking her head in an effort to clear hear mind, she checked her computer for new orders. She was relieved to see that nothing new had come in since the ship's arrival in the Orb Union. Talia would like to know what was going on back in the PLANTs, but for now it was enough to know that her current plans remained unchanged.

_Stay focused_, she thought, _You can't change the past no matter how much you'd like to. The future, though… that you _do _have a say in, not only for yourself but for everyone under your command. They're all counting on you for leadership when the time comes, and you _cannot _let them down!_

….

"Hell of a crowd, eh?" asked Shemei as she sidled up next to Murrue.

Murrue nodded at her friend as she took a sip of her glass of white wine. "We've certainly got some real characters here, don't we?"

Shemei smirked. "That's an understatement."

Dinner had just wrapped up a little bit ago. Miriallia and Athrun had arrived before that, along with Murrue's mother, Katherine Ramius, and everyone had sat down to lovely Japanese-themed meal. It had gone on for about an hour, far longer than necessary to finish their food but hardly enough time to fit in all the banter. After everyone had finished and the dining room had been cleared up the group had migrated back to the living room, where the crowd had once again formed up around the four Gundam pilots as they traded war stories with the Cosmic Era natives.

Murrue had excused herself a few minutes ago to refill her wine glass, and the Valkyrie had joined her. When she'd come back into the living room though she'd found herself leaning against a wall away from the gathering rather than joining her boyfriend on the couch, mainly because she'd become rather entranced at what she was seeing.

Over the two years he'd spent in the Cosmic Era Heero had definitely learned to loosen up and relax with others, thanks in no small part to Murrue. However, even in gatherings with friends he still had a tendency to hold back a bit; it was only with Murrue that he was willing to let himself truly unwind.

However, tonight was different, and Murrue knew it was because three of his old friends were here. Heero was still calm and collected, but there were subtle signs that Murrue had become all too adept at reading that let her know how much this really meant to him. The smirks were more frequent, as were the chuckles and amused shrugs. Heero may have turned the Cosmic Era into his new home, but it was clear that his old friends hadn't completely left his mind, and being able to catch up with them somewhere other than the battlefield was doing wonders for his mental state.

_He really needs this_, she thought with a smile, _and I can't blame him. The whole world's been on edge since the Armory One attack, and even if we stopped the Junius Seven drop attempt and destroyed Bogey One that hasn't done much to lower tensions. In the coming days our efforts will turn towards monitoring the shifting events and preparing accordingly, but tonight's not about that. It's about him reuniting with his old friends and introducing them to us, his _new _friends and family. The politics and strategy can wait; tonight is a night to unwind and enjoy life._

"Too bad Cagalli couldn't make it," said Shemei, snapping Murrue out of her thoughts.

Murrue nodded. "Yes, but given what just happened it's not too surprising. The battle may be over, but her work carries on long after the fighting does."

"Poor girl," said Shemei, "She should really get the chance to relax. I mean, the whole week's been rough for her. The last thing she needs is marathon conferences with the ministers and nobles."

Murrue sighed. "I agree, but there's not much we can do for her on that front. We're all soldiers, even if we're not officially part of a national army. Our struggle is to protect this world on the battlefield. Cagalli's is to govern, and that's far more complicated and involved than combat."

Shemei nodded. "I know. At least Athrun was able to come. Looks like he's enjoying himself."

Murrue smiled. "Him and the rest of our pilots. I'm just glad that ZAFT didn't try to arrest him once he revealed his identity on the _Minerva_."

"Nah," said Shemei, "He was never in any real danger. They needed his skills too much at that point. Besides, your boyfriend had his back too, remember? ZAFT's in no hurry to pick a fight with Heero."

Murrue smirked. "Good point."

"It's a shame the other Gundam pilot decided to stick with the _Minerva_," said Shemei, "It would've been interesting to meet him. Wonder why Wufei decided to hang out with ZAFT after the fight?"

Murrue shook her head. "Hard to say. From what Heero's told me Wufei's always been the most independent minded of the Gundam pilots."

Shemei chuckled. "Coming from a guy who's part of the most independent minded group of pilots I've ever seen… Wufei must be a real wild card."

Murrue nodded. "So it would seem. Heero's not too worried about it, though, so I don't think we need to concern ourselves with his actions."

"I just hope ZAFT doesn't do anything to piss him off," said Shemei, "He may not have the others to back him up right now, but you and I both know from experience that a single Gundam pilot can wreak a lot of havoc."

"Yes," said Murrue, "You have a point there."

The two of them turned back towards the crowd and watched them from their spot by the wall for a bit before Murrue spoke again. "Your girls seem to be enjoying themselves."

Shemei smirked. "The girls in general, or do you mean Lan in particular?"

Murrue giggled. "I suppose the latter would be most appropriate."

_Poor Quatre_, she thought, _He's really got no idea how in over his head he is with Lan…_

The Chinese Coordinator had eased up a bit on the flirtation, but there was no denying that she was giving the blond L4 native special attention. After dinner had ended she'd immediately scoped out a spot on the couch that would put her right next to Gundam Sandrock Saladin's pilot and had slipped in with catlike grace the instant he'd sat down. Adaline and Priscilla had joined in her and the others in querying the Gundam pilots, but while the other two girls were splitting their attention Lan seemed to have eyes only for Quatre.

Shemei chuckled. "That boy… he really earned himself some points by saving her life. Of course, the fact that he's both a hotshot pilot and absolutely adorable doesn't hurt either."

"I'm a bit surprised that she's focusing on Quatre," she said, "I would've thought she'd hit on Duo or Trowa."

Shemei shook her head. "Believe it not, Lan's got some rules, and one of those is to not hit on married guys. She always checks for a ring, and Duo doesn't seem to be shy about wearing his. As for Trowa, he seems to be quieter than Heero, which would mean that she'd have to spend more time probing his defenses. She likes a challenge, but since she doesn't know how long the boys are going to be here she's prioritizing the one that she has the best shot at, so to speak."

Murrue nodded, albeit a bit absently; her mind had started to wander once Shemei had mentioned Duo's marriage to Hilde. More specifically, to her own relationship with Heero.

_No_, she thought with a very small shake of her head, _now's not the time to be worrying about that…_

Unfortunately her momentary lapse had not gone unnoticed; looking back at her friend, Murrue saw those sharp silver eyes of hers narrow ever so slightly. The Valkyrie was as observant as Heero, and being a woman gave her some advantages that the Perfect Soldier lacked.

Shemei nodded towards the door that led to the back deck. "Come on, what do you say to a little girl time? I could use a bit of fresh air."

Murrue smiled, although she was sure that Shemei had more than just fresh air in mind. "Sure."

She let her friend lead the way as the two of them went outside. The cool evening air felt great on Murrue's skin, and the clear night sky allowed for a beautiful view of the stars above.

"Ah," said Shemei as the two of them leaned against the railing and looked out at the sea, "This is nice! I'm all for a friendly gathering, but sometimes you just need a bit of breathing room, you know?"

Murrue nodded. "Yes, although you're usually not the type to seek it out."

Shemei chuckled. "Yeah, I guess you have a point there."

"As much as I can appreciate a breath of fresh air," said Murrue, "I don't think you invited me out here just for a bit of breeze."

Shemei smirked. "Nothing gets by you, huh? You've always been a sharp girl, Murrue. I'm sure that's just one of many reasons why Heero fell for you."

Even though it was just her and her friend, Murrue could still feel herself blushing. "I'd like to think so."

Shemei gave her a playful punch on the shoulder. "Come on, you can do better than that! You're bright, you know it, and Heero knows it. You should be proud of that!"

"I am!" said Murrue with a laugh, "I just don't feel the need to brag about it."

Shemei took a sip of her wine. "I know. I'm just teasing, Murrue."

"Sure," Murrue replied as she enjoyed a bit of her drink as well.

They were quiet for a moment before Shemei met her gaze. "So, are you worried about him?"

Murrue was puzzled. "Worried? Why would I be?"

"You know why," said Shemei, "Heero's old friends from his old world just drop in out of the blue like this? That's got to make you at least a bit nervous."

Murrue shook her head firmly. "No. Heero already told them that he has no intention of going back, and I have no doubts in him about that. Based on how they reacted when he and I gave them our little show earlier, I think the others have accepted that."

Shemei nodded and smiled. "Too bad I missed that. Aisha said that Duo's reaction was priceless."

Murrue chuckled. "If only we'd taken some pictures…"

"No kidding," said Shemei, "Well, it's good that you've got no worries about Heero heading back with the others. How are things with you and him otherwise?"

Murrue smiled. "They've been great. The past two years… they've been the best of my life. I always knew that we'd have a few problems, especially given his past and the age gap, but the few hurdles we've had have definitely been worth it. Having mother backing the two of us has really helped; I stopped caring about what father might've thought a long time ago."

Shemei nodded. "After all you two went through just to be together in the last war you've definitely earned your relationship."

"Yes," said Murrue, "Mother felt the same way. Even though we've both kept ourselves busy with our activities in Terminal we've still had time to devote to each other. He puts everything he has into what we've built together… I've never seen such devotion from anyone else."

Shemei smiled. "No surprise there. When Heero sets his mind to something he goes all out, whether it's combat or love. Your boyfriend may not be the most expressive guy on the block, but any woman with half a brain can tell that he's crazy about you."

Murrue laughed. "Well, I don't know if I'd call him crazy. Devoted, beyond a doubt, but he's not some infatuated teenager. The love that he carries within… it's as grown up and mature as yours and Eric's."

"Maybe," said Shemei with a smirk, "but I didn't mean 'crazy' in the usual since. I'll agree that he'd not some wet behind the ears boy in caught up in puppy-love, but he's a Gundam pilot; having a screw loose seems to be par for the course with that lot. I bet he gives you the same focus that he shows the battlefield, and don't lie to me about what that translates to when the sun goes down and you're alone with him."

Murrue felt the heat rush to her face, and she tried to hide her blush by raising her wine glass. "Well... you're not wrong about that."

"Hah!" Shemei replied with a triumphant grin, "Called it! And why not? That guy's had two years with you to practice his moves! He's a real tiger beneath the sheets now, right? Come on, don't hide it from me!"

"Stop it!" said Murrue, smiling despite her protests.

"Fine," said Shemei with a sly smirk as she took another sip of her wine, "I'll let you off easy… this time."

_Implying that there will be another_, Murrue thought wryly, _She can be relentless when she wants to be…_

"So," said Shemei, "what's next for the two of you?"

Murrue raised her eyebrow in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that you two have been together for over two years now," she said with a knowing smile, "I can tell that you're both happy… but even this isn't enough for you now, is it?"

Murrue looked down, feeling herself blush again. "I… I don't know what you're talking about."

"I think you do," Shemei replied, "Don't think that I haven't been there before, Murrue. I thought what Eric and I had was enough up until Andrew popped the question to Aisha. After the wedding… well, let's just say I kept looking at my hand and felt that something was missing."

Murrue looked at Shemei's hand, all too aware of what was no longer missing from it… but what _was _missing from _hers_.

A ring.

"You don't have to hide it from me, Murrue," said Shemei with a gentle smile, "We've known each other for a while now. I know you love Heero with all of your heart, and that he definitely returns your feelings. However, there does come a point where that love needs something more, and I think you're getting there."

Murrue shook her head. "Shemei… I know what you're saying, but… Heero's not like Andrew or Eric. To ask that of him at this point…"

"Wouldn't be right?" Shemei finished for her, "I'm not saying that you should suddenly spring this on him. I completely agree with you; he's quite different from Andrew and Wolfie. He's hardly had anything that's close to a normal life, and it was a monumental leap for him to confess his feelings for you and enter into the relationship you two have now. I'm sure he's learned a lot about love since then, but I also know that there are still things that he needs to figure out."

Murrue sighed as she looked out at the sea. "That's exactly right. What we have now is huge for him… for both of us. At times I've almost felt like I was being greedy, taking such devotion from him, but he gives his affection so selflessly, even if he's not the most expressive guy around. With all of that… it almost feels wrong to want more."

Shemei shook her head. "I think you're wrong. It's perfectly natural to want that next step… and I'm not the only one who thinks so. I've been talking with Andrew, Aisha, and Eric for a few weeks now, and they're of the same mind as me; the time for the two of you to take the next step is coming."

"How many others?" asked Murrue nervously.

Shemei smiled. "Don't worry; it's just those three and me. We're not a bunch of gossips, Murrue. We're your friends and Heero's too. We want what's best for both of you, but we're not going to spread something private around to everyone in Terminal."

Murrue nodded. "I appreciate that."

"Anytime," Shemei replied, "That's what friends are for, right?"

Murrue smiled and took a sip of her wine. "Yes."

"So," said Shemei, "you got a game plan?"

Murrue blushed again. "A… a game plan? I… I don't know…"

"That's fine," said Shemei as she took a sip of her wine, "I wasn't really expecting you to have one yet anyway. I mean, I did kind of spring this up on you out of the blue and all."

"True," said Murrue, "but still… I feel like I should have some idea."

"Well, then let's try to hammer one out," said Shemei, "You know Heero better than any of us, so the ball's in your court."

Murrue sighed. "I know him very well, yes… and that's part of the problem. Even two years on there are still aspects of romance and relationships that he's learning about and trying to come to terms with. I know that he's taking his time to experience all that he can with our relationship as part of the new life he's building in our world, and the last thing I want to do is disrupt that."

Shemei nodded. "You're afraid of forcing the issue and throwing him out of his comfort zone. You don't want all the progress he's made with you to be thrown out the window. Sound about right?"

"Yes," said Murrue softly, "I mean, I know where I ultimately want this to go, and I think that with enough time Heero would ultimately understand and want that as well, but I'm afraid to push him into something that he might not be ready for."

Shemei smiled. "Then don't make it a push. A few soft and gentle nudges would be more appropriate, wouldn't you say?"

"In theory, yes," said Murrue, "but I'm not sure how that would work in practice."

"Well," said Shemei, "then it's a good thing that you got the others and I to help you out, right?"

Murrue smiled. "As long as 'others' is limited to you, Aisha, Andrew, and Eric. I'd rather keep this compartmentalized, as it were."

Shemei chuckled. "Even off the battlefield and out of our old armies we still can't drop the military lingo, can we?"

"Old habits die hard," said Murrue as she took a sip of her wine.

"Can't argue there," said Shemei as she joined her.

It was quiet for a moment before Murrue spoke again. "So… what should I do?"

"Well, talk to him, of course," said Shemei, "Just be careful with the approach."

"That doesn't exactly help," Murrue replied.

"Right," said Shemei, "Well, think about it like this. You two get plenty of alone time, right?"

Murrue nodded. "When he's here and not in the field, yes. That's something I intend to catch up on with him later."

Shemei gave her a knowing smirk. "Of course. Anyway, that means that you've got plenty of opportunities to drop small hints as to where you want things to go. Start casual. Ask him about what might happen once things quiet down in the world, or what he'll do once his old friends have returned to their world. Maybe bring up Duo's marriage in passing conversation and see where that goes."

Murrue smiled. "Those all sound like good places to start."

"Feel free to bring up Eric and me too, if you want," said Shemei with a wink, "It never hurts to have an example that's closer to home. I'm sure Andrew and Aisha wouldn't mind either."

"I hope so," said Murrue.

"You might want to ask your mother about this, too," said Shemei, "It can't hurt to bring her in on this, and you know she's always got your back. Who knows, she might drop a hint or two to Heero for you."

"I'll think about it," Murrue replied, "Although I really feel like this should be something that I should handle."

"And no one's saying that you shouldn't," said Shemei, smiling, "All I'm saying is that we're here to help you out if you need a hand."

Murrue returned her smile. "Thank you, Shemei."

"No sweat," said Shemei, "You know, this isn't a one way street for you. You might not think this right now, but I'm willing to bet that Heero wants the same thing you do. He just hasn't realized it yet, or he doesn't know how to put it into words."

"You really think so?" asked Murrue.

Shemei took another sip of her wine and grinned. "Hell yeah! I wasn't exaggerating when I said that he was crazy about you, after all. He just doesn't have as much experience with romance as the rest of us, so his approach is naturally going to be different."

"You're not wrong about that," said Murrue as she partook in her beverage as well, "I'm just worried about scaring him off."

Shemei put her hand on Murrue's shoulder. "Trust me, that's the _last _thing that'll happen. After all you two have been through there's no way in hell that he'd run for the hills now. Feel free to be cautious with him, but don't be afraid to start dropping hints and giving him a gentle shove or two. This isn't all about his happiness, Murrue; yours matters too, and I think that's a sentiment that Heero would agree with."

Murrue smiled. "I think you're right about that. Actually, in all our time together, Heero's really been focused on _my _happiness; he barely gives a thought to his own."

"I know," said Shemei, "That's just one of the reasons why he's one hell of a guy. His heart's definitely in the right place, but that doesn't mean he doesn't need a little help from time to time."

Murrue nodded. "All right. Any other ideas?"

Shemei shook her head. "No right now, but if you ever want to talk about this again just let me know. I'm no shrink like Dr. Claudia, but I'm still pretty good with people and romance, and I'm not the only one. You know, we could always bring Lacus in on this too. I bet she'd like to help out."

"Let's play that by ear," said Murrue, "I think we've got enough people involved in this as it is."

Shemei smiled and held out her glass. "Sure thing. Here's to friendly conspiracies and boyfriends who need a hint or two!"

Murrue smiled and clinked her glass with Shemei's. "I'll drink to that!"

….

"So," said Lan, batting her eyes at Quatre, "how long are you going to be in town?"

It felt good to finally get a little alone time with him. The impromptu Terminal get-together was still going strong, but the crowd had split off into smaller groups as the evening had gone on. Sensing her chance, Lan had made sure to stick with Quatre, and luckily for her Adaline and Priscilla had decided to give her some space and hang out with Trowa instead.

_All right_, she thought, _time to really start working my charm with this flyboy!_

"I'm not sure," Quatre replied, "I've got some data that Heero said I should give to an engineer named Erica Simmons that'll help us get started on finding our way home, but I think it'll be quite a while until we're actually able to head back to our world."

"There's no need to rush," said Lan, smiling at him, "None of us are in a hurry for you to leave, after all."

Quatre nodded and returned her smile, looking a little bashful as he did. "I appreciate your hospitality. It's nice to have people so welcoming to us in this world. When we first started this journey I was afraid that it would be one fight after another."

Lan gave him a playful punch on the shoulder. "I wouldn't think that that would be a big problem for a Gundam pilot like you. From what I've seen you boys are pretty handy when the bullets start flying!"

Quatre laughed. "Maybe, but I'd still prefer to avoid fighting if at all possible. The Cosmic Era is an entirely new world for us, one that we had no idea even existed until Heero accidently found a way here. I'd much rather our time here be peaceful so we can learn as much about it as we can before we return to our world."

"Oh," said Lan, "Quite the scholar, aren't you?"

"I wouldn't go that far," Quatre replied, "but I am curious. I mean, how often would someone get the chance to experience something like this?"

"Can't argue with that," said Lan, "and don't worry; the war we fought when Heero arrived here ended two years ago. I know you guys got off to a rocky start here, but the Cosmic Era's not in a state of open conflict right now. Besides, you guys just helped us save the world, so things should quiet down now."

Quatre nodded. "I'd like that. The last thing I'd want would be for us to play a part in starting another war, accidentally or otherwise."

Lan shook her head. "Trust me, if another war gets started it won't be because of you or your friends. We've got plenty of assholes in this world that would want to kick off a new war with or without you. In fact, they'd probably prefer you and the other Gundam pilots weren't here; it'd make their job easier."

"We do seem to have a habit of throwing a wrench into peoples' plans," Quatre replied with a smile, "We're pretty hard to predict."

_Damn, that smile_, thought Lan, _Quatre, you've got no idea just how cute you are, do you?_

Lan smirked. "You got that right! Man, you should've seen how everyone reacted two years ago when Heero showed up with Wing Zero. If he didn't count as a wild card back then, I don't know what would."

"Heero gave us a pretty good idea of what happened," said Quatre, "You fought against him twice, right?"

Lan nodded. "Yup, back when I was still with ZAFT. I was on the same team as Shemei, Adaline, and Priscilla. We were one of ZAFT's top mobile suit teams… and Heero wiped the floor with us."

Quatre shook his head. "That's not the way I heard it. Heero seems to hold your team's skills in pretty high regard. From what I learned it seems like you and the others put up a pretty good fight both times you faced off with him in North Africa. You should be proud; there's not a lot of pilots who can say that they survived a fight with Heero, especially when he's flying Wing Zero."

Lan smiled. "Believe me, cutie, I am proud of that, and I know the others are too. However, that doesn't change the fact that Adaline, Pris and I weren't able to last nearly as long against him as our boss was. Heero's one hell of a badass, no doubt there… and you're no slouch either!"

"Thanks," said Quatre sheepishly, "I try, although I don't think that I'm on the same level as Heero."

_So modest_, she thought with a smirk, _He's downright adorable!_

She put her hand on his shoulder and leaned in. "I don't know about that, flyboy. From what Heero's told us in the past it sounds like he considers you and each of the others to be individually on his level. You can downplay your talents all you want, but when a guy like Heero offers that kind of praise for a pilot I tend to take him seriously. I wouldn't mind mixing it up with you in a simulator fight some time!"

Quatre nodded. "Thanks, I… I think that'd be fun to try some time."

"Hell, yeah!" she said, "I gotta say, your Gundam's pretty cool! Sandrock Saladin, right?"

"Yeah," Quatre replied with a smile, "An old friend of mine helped me upgrade it before we started this mission. Actually, he handled the upgrades for all of our Gundams. Except Heero's, of course."

"Sounds like this guy's got some talent," said Lan.

"You could say that," said Quatre, "He was part of the team that designed the original Tallgeese."

Lan raised an eyebrow. "You mean the mobile suit that La Flaga's Tallgeese Kai evolved from?"

"One and the same," said Quatre, "I was kind of surprised that Heero had shared the design in this world. Tallgeese was the first combat mobile suit developed in our world, after all. All of our mobile suits, including the Gundams, stem from that design."

"I heard about that," said Lan, "I think Heero also mentioned that very few people could use the Tallgeese due to its powerful acceleration and high top speed."

Quatre nodded. "He's not wrong. Mu La Flaga must be quite a pilot to be able to handle it. From what I observed during the battle earlier today it looked like the thrusters had the same amount of power as the original model."

Lan smiled. "Well, there's a reason he's called the Hawk of Endymion. He was one of the few pilots in the Earth Alliance to master the prototype Moebius Zero during the last war. If it's a mean machine, he can master it. Hell, I'm not even sure if _I _could handle the Tallgeese Kai, and I'm a Coordinator!"

Quatre smiled in return. "I think you could. You fought very well in the battle today, and your mobile suit seems like it'd be quite tricky to wield effectively. You're a very talented pilot."

Lan batted her eyes at him. "Mmmm, Quatre… keep up the flattery and you'll have me eating out of the palm of your hand!"

Once again the young man blushed, and it was a sight that Lan never got tired of. If he was just a regular guy it'd be one thing, but the fact that he was a Gundam pilot made it special. Here was a pilot who had fought in the same war that the legendary Heero Yuy had, and with his own fearsome mobile suit, and yet he was just so cute and bashful that he was all but irresistible to Lan.

_This boy just might be my catnip_, she thought, _Absolutely addicting!_

Knowing that she had him off balance, Lan decided to press her advantage. "So, any ladies in your life?"

"Well," said Quatre, "there are my sisters, and a few of my friends."

"No girlfriend?" she asked.

Quatre shook his head. "No… I've actually never had one."

"Really?" said Lan, "A guy like you? I find that hard to believe."

"I'm telling the truth," Quatre insisted, "I don't know why, I've just never been in a relationship like that. I… I've never met the right girl, I guess. Besides, I've been so busy that I've never really had time to try out romance, although my sisters keep telling me that I should make time for it."

_Lucky me_, thought Lan, _that's going to make the time I get with you all the more fun!_

"They're not wrong, you know," said Lan, "A cute guy like you, and a mobile suit pilot to boot… if you put yourself out on the market I bet there'd be a line of ladies a kilometer long ready to take a shot at you!"

Quatre smiled. "Thanks. Maybe I'll be able to find some time eventually. I guess some of my sisters could take over more management duties. Rasheed and the Corps could always help them out too."

Lan raised an eyebrow. "Rasheed and the Corps? Who are you talking about?"

"Sorry," said Quatre, "I forgot that you don't really know that much about me. Rasheed's the head of the Maganac Corps. They're… well, during the war I guess you could've called them my private army. Now they all work for my company."

Lan's eyes widened. "Wait, you had a _private army_?"

"Well," said Quatre, "I guess that 'army' might be too strong of a word. There are only forty of them in all, but they're all good pilots and fiercely loyal to my family. Since the war ended they're all employed by the Winner Corporation now. They're good friends and hardworking employees, although I think they worry a bit too much about me sometimes. Since I'm over here they're watching over my sisters in my absence."

"You keep mentioning your sisters," said Lan, "How many do you have?"

Quatre gave her a sheepish smile. "Do you promise not to overreact?"

Lan didn't know why he was leading with that, but she nodded all the same. "Sure thing."

"Okay," said Quatre, "I'm the youngest of thirty siblings, and the other twenty-nine are all girls."

Lan was dead silent for a moment. She didn't move, and she didn't even think that she was _breathing _at that moment.

She _had _to have heard that wrong.

"Maybe I hit my head during the fight earlier," she said, "because there is _no way _that you just said what I think you did."

Quatre shook his head. "I don't know about your head, but I can assure you that you heard me right. I've got twenty-nine sisters, Lan."

Lan was glad that her friends weren't paying attention to her right now, because her jaw had dropped so hard that she swore it would hit the floor. "Holy _shit_… how the _hell _is that possible?"

"It's complicated," said Quatre.

"I'm all ears," Lan replied, "It's kinda hard to walk away from something like this."

Quatre nodded. "All right. I guess you'd need a bit of background information first. You see, when the development of space colonies first began, the unique and often difficult conditions of life beyond Earth led to serious reproductive abnormalities. For quite some time childbirth was only permitted through artificial means."

"I can understand that," said Lan, "We actually went through something similar in the Cosmic Era, although it didn't take too long for colony and medicinal technology to advance to the point where natural births could occur in outer space."

"I see," said Quatre, "In our world we managed to overcome those issues almost a hundred years ago. However, my family had been in outer space since practically the beginning of the space colony era, and so we still suffered from those abnormalities. In order to have children we had to rely on the test tube method."

"That's rough," said Lan, putting a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.

Quatre smiled appreciatively. "Well, there was nothing we could really do except use science to work around it. So my father used test tubes and gained a whole flock of daughters, and eventually a son."

"Why so many?" asked Lan.

Quatre shook his head. "I don't know. That bothered me for a long time… and to be honest, I kind of resented him for it. I thought he didn't really love us as his kids. I was an idiot."

Lan shook her head. "I don't think you're really being fair to yourself here. Look, I'm an only child, so I'll admit that I'd have a hard time relating to someone with even one sibling, let alone the huge family you've got. Still, from where I'm sitting I think a bit of resentment and questioning your father's motives is pretty understandable."

Quatre sighed. "I used to think that too… until I found something in the family archives after my father died."

"What was that?" asked Lan.

It was surprising to her how Quatre was the one leading the conversation now. Lan had expected herself to be the one setting the pace, especially with how bashful he'd been acting with her earlier. Still, she didn't want to pass up on this chance to learn more about him, and she was willing to lay off on the flirting in light of how serious this was for him.

_Then again_, she thought, somewhat wistfully, _I guess family's always a serious topic. Mine sure as hell is nowadays._

"It turned out that of all the children my parents had, I'm the only one that wasn't grown in a test tube," he said, "Mine was a natural birth… and my mother died because of it."

Lan put her hand to her mouth. "Oh, _shit_… Quatre, I'm sorry."

Quatre gave her a small smile. "It's all right… but thanks."

There was a brief pause before he spoke again. "After finding that out I wasn't sure what to think about my father for a while. Once the war ended I finally worked up the nerve to ask my sisters about it, all of them. I really felt like an idiot for not doing it sooner."

"Hey," said Lan, "you had some really heavy stuff you had to deal with there. I'm sure they didn't mind that you took some time before coming to them about it."

Quatre nodded. "True. They were all really understanding about it."

"So," said Lan, "what did they tell you?"

Quatre's smile grew a little. "The simple truth; my father loved us all, right up to the very end. Even me, and I'm the one that got into the most fights with him."

"You, fighting with your old man?" said Lan with a smirk, "You don't seem like the type. I'd think you'd be more like the son that always makes daddy proud."

She was glad to see him laugh a little at that. "They weren't your typical teenage rebellion fights. It was more philosophical... although I guess rebellion did play a role. Rebellion against Earth rule over the colonies, anyway."

"I take it that your old man wasn't a huge fan of you being a Gundam pilot," said Lan.

Quatre nodded. "My father was a big believer in Heero Yuy's ideals of total pacifism. Armed revolt was the last thing he would ever approve of."

Lan raised an eyebrow as she looked over at Heero, who was talking with Murrue, Shemei, and Eric. "You're going to have to explain that one to me, because I have a very hard time hearing the words 'Heero Yuy' and 'total pacifism' together in the same sentence."

Quatre laughed. "Right, sorry about that. I was talking about the original Heero Yuy, not the one you and I know today. He was a prominent member of the colonial resistance to the rule of the old United Earth Sphere Alliance. He preached the ideas of pacifism and non-violent resistance. He was so charismatic and popular that he was eventually elected the leader of the colonial resistance movement."

"Sounds like a modern day M.L.K. or Gandhi," Lan replied.

"You're not the first to make that comparison," said Quatre, "Unfortunately he shared the same fate as both of those figures; he was assassinated twenty-three years ago. The killer was never conclusively identified, although the broad consensus is that either the old Alliance or OZ sanctioned the hit. After Heero Yuy died the nonviolent part of the colonial resistance more or less folded, and the armed revolutionaries took over. Father hated them; he was sure that they would bring nothing but death and ruin to the colonies."

Lan nodded. "I disagree with him, but I can see why he thought that way. That had to have been rough, having your own father against you like that."

"Yeah," said Quatre, "I don't think that wound ever really healed between us. We never got the chance to try."

_He's lost both his parents_, she thought, _Another thing we have in common… well, except for the fact that I wasn't exactly sad to see _my _father die. Not after what that son of a bitch did to mom…_

Lan shook her head. Thoughts like that were becoming more and more common as the anniversary of her mother's death approached, and she didn't want to be dwelling on them right now. Tonight was a party night, and she had to do her part to get things back on track.

"Well," she said with a smile, "you two may have had your disagreements, but even with his stance against fighting I think he'd be proud of you, especially with what you helped us do today. I mean, we saved the world! No way your old man could frown on that, right?"

Quatre returned her smile. "Yeah, I think you're right."

Lan put her arm around him. "Damn right I am! By the way, I seem to recall you mentioning something about having your own company. What's the Winner Corporation?"

"It's my family's company," said Quatre, "I don't know why my sisters wanted me to take it over; quite a few of them could run it better than I could, I think. They said father wanted me to run it someday, though, so I got put in charge after the war. At least they're all willing to help me keep it running smoothly, and Rasheed and the rest of the Maganac Corps are pitching in too."

Lan nodded and leaned in closer. "That's nice and all, but you still haven't told me what your company _does_."

"Oh, right," Quatre replied, looking a bit embarrassed, "The Winner Corporation's so diversified now that at this point it'd be easier to list what we _don't _do, really. Its primary focus is colony construction and resource mining, particularly with asteroids, but we've got a lot of secondary ventures and businesses set up as well. We've been in the colony game since the beginning, really."

Lan whistled. "Nice! So, how big are you guys? How much cash are we talking about here?"

Lan wasn't a gold digger by any means, but she wouldn't deny that the fact that Quatre was by all indicators rich certainly didn't hurt his appeal to her.

Quatre laughed. "That'd be hard to say considering that your world and mine use different currencies. Plus I don't know how I'd adjust for inflation between the two of them."

"All right," said Lan, "forget a dollar amount. There's got to be another way you can describe it."

Quatre nodded. "Okay… you know how business magazines typically have an annual list of the top one-hundred or so companies in the world?"

"Yup," said Lan.

Quatre smiled sheepishly. "Mine's typically in the top five."

If Lan's jaw could have dropped any further it would have hit the floor. "Whoa… you're freaking _loaded_!"

"Only in my world," said Quatre, "I only brought my Gundam and my friends with me here, not my money."

Lan shook her head in amazement. "Filthy rich, and yet you became a Gundam pilot… I did not see that one coming."

Quatre nodded and laughed. "I have to admit, sometimes even I have a hard time believing it. My family's as high as you can get on the wealth scale, but I had no problem diving right into a warzone."

Lan smiled. "Quatre, I think you're a special kind of crazy… and I _like _it!"

….

Lacus turned to Kira and smiled as she took a sip of her tea. "This has been quite a lively evening, hasn't it?"

To her left Kira nodded. "Heero's old friends definitely aren't boring."

Lacus couldn't argue with that. It had seemed like everyone wanted to take a turn at interrogating the Gundam pilots, and she was no different. She'd spoken to Heero a few times about his world, but she knew that there was so much more for her to learn. To get the chance to discuss the After Colony timeline with the other Gundam pilots was an extraordinary opportunity that Lacus had not wanted to waste.

_A entirely different world_, she thought, _and yet… it has more than a few similarities with ours._

Lacus had managed to show some restraint with her questioning, but she was sure that part of her excitement had come to the surface regardless of her efforts. Now that everyone had split off into smaller groups the atmosphere had become more relaxed, but there was no denying that the gathering still had an almost festive air to it. It was strange to think that they were here now when just this morning they'd been fighting a battle with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.

"I suppose we shouldn't be surprised," she said, "If Heero is any indication then it would seem that any day with Gundam pilots involved will not be a dull one."

"You got that right!" said a male voice from behind her.

Lacus turned around and saw that Duo Maxwell had returned from the kitchen, a refilled wine glass in his hand. A confident and relaxed smile was on his face, and if he was feeling any ill effects from the alcohol he gave no sign of it.

"Room for one more?" he said, nodding at the empty spot to her right.

Lacus nodded and smiled. "Of course! Please, join us, Mister Maxwell."

The pilot of Deathscythe Omega chuckled as he sat down next to her. "Just call me Duo, lady. Everyone else does."

"Very well, then," Lacus replied, "I hope you're enjoying yourself."

Duo grinned. "Free food, free drink, and new friends? I'm a happy guy!"

"Just don't go overboard," said Kira with a smile, "I don't think Heero would like it if you and the others got hammered on your first night here."

Duo shrugged. "Ah, he can deal with it. Besides, this stuff's light. It takes a lot more than a few glasses of wine to take me down."

"I'll take your word for it," said Kira.

"Do you have many parties like this back in your world?" asked Lacus.

"We have a few," said Duo, "It's kind of hard to set up a decent get-together, though. Everyone's got their own thing going, so it takes a lot of work to arrange for a party night. It's a real drag sometimes."

"What do you do?" asked Kira, "When you're not being a Gundam pilot, I mean."

Duo smirked. "Once you're a Gundam pilot you're never 'not being a Gundam pilot' again. It's not like a job that you can clock in and out of."

"Perhaps," said Lacus, "but Heero has work that he does when he's not flying Wing Zero Albion. Surely you have something similar."

Duo nodded. "Yeah, I do. My wife runs a salvage yard on one of the L2 colonies, so I help her out there. Not quite as exciting as mixing things up with my buddy Deathscythe, but it pays the bills, and you'd be surprised how many spare parts for my Gundam I've managed to find in there."

"How long have you been married?" asked Kira.

"A little over a year now," he replied with a grin, "and worth every second of it!"

Lacus smiled. "I'm glad to hear that. Your wife's a very fortunate woman."

Duo chuckled. "She might argue a bit with you on that. She's not very happy when I forget to update our inventory whenever I smuggle a part for Deathscythe Omega out of the salvage yard."

"Then you should fill out your paperwork," said Kira with a laugh.

Duo sighed. "I know, but I hate that stuff! I got to sign for stuff enough when she's got me on the clock. I don't want to deal with that when I've got my 'me' time."

"Then you'll keep angering your wife," said Lacus, "That won't solve your problem."

Duo smiled. "Yeah, yeah, I know. You let me worry about that, lady. Besides, Hilde's pretty cute when I get her worked up!"

"If you say so," said Kira.

Duo smirked. "Come on, Kira, don't tell me you've never riled your lady up a bit just to see what might happen later!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Kira.

"Kira's not really the type to 'rile me up' like that," said Lacus.

Duo shook his head. "Really? You two _are _together, right?"

Lacus smiled as she grabbed Kira's hand. "Yes, we are."

"We have been for over two years now," said Kira.

"So you two have… you know…" said Duo with a devious look in his eyes, "… gotten _frisky_, let's say?"

Kira blushed furiously. "That's private!"

Lacus quickly nodded, feeling a rush of heat come to her face. "I… I agree with Kira! Sorry, Duo!"

Duo chuckled. "No worries. At least it looks like you two have a… _healthy _relationship, heh heh!"

Despite her gift with words, Lacus really could not come up with a proper response for that. It was quite rare for someone to fluster her like this, but Duo had pulled it off with surprisingly little effort. Kira likewise appeared to be at a loss for words, and his face was still quite red.

"So," said Duo, "when are you two getting hitched?"

Lacus didn't think it was possible, but she saw Kira blush even deeper than before. The head in her face likewise increased, and Lacus _really_ wanted to find a way to redirect this conversation.

"That… that will happen when the time is right," said Lacus.

Kira nodded. "Yeah… she's right."

Duo shrugged. "All right, I won't push things then. Just don't take too long, Kira. She's going to want a ring sooner or later!"

"I'll… keep that in mind," Kira replied.

Lacus smiled at Kira. "You needn't worry about that right now, Kira."

Kira looked relieved. "Thanks."

Duo shook his head and smirked. "You're lucky, Kira; she looks way too nice to put pressure on you over something like that."

"I'd like to think so," said Lacus.

"You said you two got together two years ago," said Duo, "That would've been during the war, right?"

Kira nodded. "Yeah. It was right before the final battle, although we met several months before that."

"Kira saved my life when we first met," said Lacus, "and he's continued to protect me since then."

Duo smiled. "Well, he's got a good reason to. What guy wouldn't want to protect a cute lady like you?"

Lacus smiled. "It wasn't because I was… cute, Duo. Kira's the kind of person that helps anyone."

"I know," said Duo, "I can tell just by looking at him. You remind me a bit of Quatre, you know that, Kira?"

Kira looked a bit surprised at that. "Really?"

Duo nodded. "Sure. Nicest guy you'll ever meet, and he goes out of his way to help people. I think the two of you will get along just fine. Plus you're a pretty good pilot, so that helps too."

"You think so?" asked Kira.

"Well, yeah," Duo replied, "I saw you fighting up in orbit earlier. You're a good shot, and that machine of yours looks like it's pretty trick to wield properly. That thing's called the Freedom, right?"

"Correct," said Lacus, "My father and I helped Kira steal it from ZAFT during the last war. It was one of their first nuclear powered mobile suits, able to operate despite the N-Jammers due to prototype N-Jammer Cancellers."

"Heero sent us copies of the designs," said Duo, "That was your world's first real Gundam, right?"

"According to Heero," said Kira, "He told me that he could consider the Freedom to be a Gundam because of its power and the potential it had to be truly decisive on a battlefield in the hands of a skilled pilot even though it wasn't made of Gundanium alloy. I guess you could say that he thought of it as a new kind of Gundam."

Duo nodded. "I can follow that. So that'd make the Strike and the other units from Heliopolis proto-Gundams."

"Yes," said Lacus, "or at least, that's the way Heero described them to us. While I always thought that they were powerful machines in their own right I can see why he would think of them as a level below a Gundam."

"What do you think about the mobile suits from Armory One?" asked Kira.

Duo looked down in thought. "Hmmm… I guess the 'proto-Gundam' label fits them pretty well. I think the only one that could really qualify as an actual Gundam would be that one nuclear powered machine that the attackers used."

"That's the one with the gun drones, right?" asked Lacus.

"Yup," Duo replied, "Pretty mean machine, and its pilot has to be pretty good if he can survive three fights with Heero."

"Did you guys ever have to go up against tech like that in your world?" asked Kira, "The gun drones, I mean."

Duo shook his head. "No one ever thought of trying something like that to my knowledge. We did have to deal with the opposite, though; shield drones."

"You mean the Planet Defensors on the Tallgeese Kai and the Mercurius Kai," said Kira, "Those are pretty impressive."

"They must've saved a lot of soldiers' lives in your last war," said Lacus.

"Well," said Duo, "only a few, really. Apart from the original Mercurius those things were only mounted on Mobile Dolls."

Lacus raised an eyebrow. "Mobile Dolls? I've heard Heero use that term before, but it was only in passing."

"What are they?" asked Kira.

"Long story short, they're mobile suits without the pilots," Duo replied, "They're controlled by A.I.s rather than humans; that's where the 'Doll' part of the name comes from."

Lacus's eyes widened. "Your world actually has the technology to do that? That's incredible!"

"No kidding!" said Kira, "It was hard enough for us just to create viable operating systems so humans, Coordinator or Natural, could pilot mobile suits. To have a computer program capable of operating them without human input is way out of our league, at least to my knowledge."

"Well, there was a lot of money and influence behind the program, and OZ and Romefeller were eventually able to pull it off," said Duo, "They started by modifying mobile suits that were traditionally piloted by humans, but eventually they came up with machines that were designed from the ground up as Mobile Dolls. Those were the ones that used the Planet Defensors; the operating system behind those shield drones is really too complex for most humans to handle. It's a lot easier to have that be controlled by an A.I."

"They must've been formidable weapons," said Lacus.

Duo chuckled. "At first, yeah, but we figured out how to beat em eventually. Over the long term I think they actually caused more problems for OZ and Romefeller than they'd bargained for."

"What do you mean?" asked Kira.

"Too put it bluntly," said Duo with a smirk, "they caused a split within OZ that quickly turned into a full-scale civil war."

"A civil war over Mobile Dolls?" said Lacus incredulously, "I don't understand."

"Me neither," said Kira.

Duo sighed. "I guess that's not too surprising; it's a bit complicated."

"We have plenty of time," said Kira.

Lacus nodded and smiled. "The night's still young, and I for one am all for another story or two about your world!"

Duo smiled. "All right, then. I guess I'd better start with Romefeller and OZ. In a nutshell, the former was the biggest embodiment of the military-industrial-complex. They were incredibly wealthy, and that wealth primarily stemmed from the profits they made in the arms industry. OZ was their armed force. Publicly they presented themselves as an elite group within the military of the old Alliance, but in reality they were the armed wing of the Romefeller Foundation and helped them control the policies of the government that ruled the Earth Sphere."

"They were the ones that you fought your rebellion against, correct?" asked Lacus.

Duo nodded. "In large part, yes; we knew that they were the real power behind the United Earth Sphere Alliance, although the public government was a real piece of work all on its own. Anyway, once we launched Operation Meteor we became a real thorn in the side of the powers that be, and so they accelerated their plans."

"What do you mean?" asked Kira.

"Simply put, OZ overthrew the Alliance in a coup d'état," Duo replied, "It was with Romefeller's backing, and I'm pretty sure that long term they were going to get rid of the old Alliance anyway and rule on the world stage as well as behind the scenes. The chaos that the five of us caused with our rebellion simply motivated them to step up their timetable for the coup."

"Did they use their Mobile Dolls in the coup?" asked Lacus.

Duo shook his head. "No, those came later, but I have to imagine that they were in development for quite some time. When the Romefeller Foundation introduced the prototypes and announced their plans to go into mass production with them that caused Treize to rebel."

Kira raised an eyebrow. "Treize? I think I've heard Heero mention that name before, but he never went into detail about him."

"Who is he?" asked Lacus.

Duo smirked. "Ah, Treize Khushrenada… of all the enemies we faced, he was the cagiest. Also the strangest; he had a weird sense of honor. I think the only ones among the five of us who really got him are Heero and Wufei. Long story short, Treize hated the idea of Mobile Dolls. He felt that it was humans risking their lives on the battlefield that gave war meaning. Take that away and it just turned war into a game that anyone with enough money could play with giant toys. Treize was pretty damn charismatic, so when he split with Romefeller and OZ a lot of soldiers followed him. They became known as the Treize Faction, and Romefeller wasted no time in putting the Mobile Dolls into mass production. Once they had enough of them they launched Operation Nova."

"What was that?" asked Kira.

Duo chuckled. "Basically it was a sheer numbers knockoff of our version of Operation Meteor. Mobile Doll production was based in outer space. Operation Nova involved shipping armies of them to Earth, where they proceeded to do battle with the Treize Faction. In the middle of all that you had the five of us, just trying to stay alive and wreak a little havoc on the side."

Lacus nodded. "I see. Were the Mobile Dolls powerful?"

"Yes and no," said Duo, "We had a hard time dealing with them at first, but once we got our Gundams upgraded and had a better understanding of how they operated we could take them on."

"What are they like in a fight?" asked Kira.

"Kinda creepy, to be honest," said Duo, "The fact that they're A.I. controlled means that they can move with greater precision than most human pilots, and they can coordinate pretty well. White Fang came up with a modified version of the ZERO System that allowed someone to take that coordination to the next level, but we were able to stand against it. Romefeller spared no expense in making sure that they had the latest high-tech weaponry, and White Fang upped that even further. Mobile Dolls don't tire, so there is an advantage to using them in a prolonged battle. With enough time an army of them can wear down a group of skilled pilots, and we would've been overwhelmed if we hadn't been able to work together."

"They must've had a weakness of some kind," said Lacus.

Duo smiled. "Yup. Their A.I.s were actually pretty limited in capability. They couldn't innovate like human pilots can. Once you find the weak point in their formation and disrupt it they become a lot easier to pick off. No tactical flexibility whatsoever, and you can forget about long-term strategy. Also, they're not very good when it comes to one-on-one fights, so if you can isolate units you can eliminate them without too much trouble. In short, they're good only if you can field them in overwhelming numbers. The perfect weapons for a bunch of rich arms dealers and despots, along with the revolutionary fanatics that stole them, but pit them against real pilots with good mobile suits and they fall apart."

"I'm glad you guys were able to beat them," said Kira with a smile, "It's a good thing that no one's been able to develop those in the Cosmic Era."

Duo looked down, and Lacus was surprised that he suddenly appeared to be quite thoughtful. "Not the ones I'd recognize from my world, but they might be on the way."

"What do you mean?" asked Lacus.

"The battle we fought in the Debris Belt," Duo replied, "One of the ships in the battle group flying with Bogey One deployed a bunch of mobile armors without human pilots. They were pretty weak and didn't last too long against us, but they were A.I. controlled. From there the next step would be to apply a system like that to mobile suits."

Lacus shivered. "You don't really think that they're on the cusp of achieving that, do you?"

Duo shrugged. "You're asking the wrong guy, Lacus. All I do is blow them up. Mobile Doll R&amp;D is over my head."

"Would the Earth Alliance really use such weapons?" asked Kira, "I mean, with the way the extremists in their government hate genetically modified humans you would think that they might also have qualms about A.I. on the battlefield."

Lacus sighed. "I don't know."

Duo smiled. "Well, if they do deploy them, me and the rest of the gang would be more than happy to lend you our expertise on blowing them to bits!"

Kira laughed. "Thanks, though I hope we don't need it."

Lacus nodded. "Indeed."

Duo raised his glass and took another sip of wine. "Well, if we get lucky then we won't have to worry about that at all. It's not like we're in a shooting war right now, and since we stopped the colony from falling I'd say we're sitting pretty good."

Lacus smiled. "I agree."

"Yeah," said Kira, "We'll deal with that when and if the time comes."

"Now that's more like it," said Duo as he took another drink, "Okay, Kira, what do you say you and me go shot for shot?"

Kira's eyes widened. "That's _wine_! You can't just throw it back like tequila!"

Duo smirked. "Sure you can! No rule against it!"

Lacus had to laugh at that. "Perhaps no _written _rule, but there is some informal decorum that should be observed."

"That's not really my thing," Duo replied, "which is probably why I don't get invited to too many fancy parties."

"Sorry," said Kira, "but I don't do drinking games."

Duo sighed. "Fine, be that way."

_He's certainly an interesting one_, Lacus thought as she watched him take another sip of his beverage, _Gundam pilots truly do come in all varieties. There's no one-size-fits-all approach to them. What a fascinating group of individuals._

Her smile turned wistful as her musings went off to the past.

_Father… I wish you could be here today._

_ I think you would've liked the new friends I've made._

….

"So," said Yzak, "what do you think of our guests?"

Athrun smirked as he took a sip of his wine. "Good question."

"I don't know what I was expecting," said Dearka, "but it definitely wasn't this."

The three of them had gone into the kitchen, both to refill their drinks and to get just a temporary breather. It had been a while since Athrun had been able to hang out with his old friends like this, so he wasn't particularly in a hurry to go back into the living room with the others quite yet.

_I'm with Dearka on that one_, he thought, _I spent about a week with then on the Minerva and I still don't quite know what to make of them. Then again, I suppose I stayed with Cagalli most of the time rather than hang out with Heero and the others._

"I thought that they'd all be like Heero," said Yzak, "but the only thing they've really got in common is their piloting skills."

"And the badass mobile suits," said Dearka with a smirk, "We definitely could've used those in the last war."

Athrun nodded. "I'm with you there."

Yzak chuckled. "They would've been a real pain to fight against, that's for sure. If they'd all shown up with Heero when he did then those of us who were attacking the _Archangel _earlier in the war probably wouldn't be alive."

"I'm surprised you managed to survive with just Heero on the field," said a new voice.

The three of them turned to see Trowa standing in the entrance of the kitchen. "Staying alive in a fight against Wing Zero is no small feat."

Athrun nodded. "Well, Heero definitely didn't make it easy on us."

"No kidding," said Dearka.

"You're the pilot of Heavyarms Arsenal, right?" asked Yzak, "The one with all the Gatling guns and missiles."

"Along with the Double Assault Beam Cannon, yes," said Trowa as he walked in and grabbed a bottle of wine.

Athrun and the others were quiet for a moment as they watched Trowa pop open the bottle and pour himself a refill. Athrun didn't know how many drinks the Gundam pilot had had so far, but he seemed no worse for the wear.

As Trowa filled his glass he turned to Athrun. "To be honest I'm surprised you made it here tonight. I thought you'd be with Cagalli."

Athrun was a little taken aback at that sudden change in the direction of the conversation, but he went along with it all the same. "Cagalli wanted me to come over here so I could spend time with everyone… and to keep me out of Orb politics. She had to meet with her ministers and fellow nobles after we arrived. Those meetings usually wear her out, so by now I'm sure she's asleep."

Trowa nodded. "That was nice of her to keep you out of the fray. Politics can be ugly, regardless of the nation."

It was strange listening to him talk like this. Trowa was as calm as Heero, but the way his hair came down over his right eye somehow made him even harder to read than Wing Zero's pilot. Yet despite his inscrutable appearance his tone was quite casual.

Trowa turned to Yzak and Dearka. "So, what do you think of our world's old machines?"

Yzak raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"Which ones?" asked Dearka.

"Mercurius and Vayeate," said Trowa, "You two pilot the upgraded versions of them, don't you?"

"Oh, those," said Dearka, smiling, "They're pretty sweet. Vayeate packs a real punch!"

Yzak nodded. "Heero told us that the original models were built to act in concert. They function quite well as a pair, and they're definitely superior to the mobile suits we flew in the last war."

"Indeed," said Trowa, "I have to admit that I was surprised to see those two on the battlefield again, whether upgraded or not. Heero must really trust you guys if he's willing to share the technology of our world with you."

"We're his comrades," said Dearka, "Of course he trusts us."

"We are flying out of the _Archangel _now, after all," said Yzak, "Since that's Captain Ramius's ship Heero wouldn't let us anywhere near it if he didn't trust us, especially with advanced mobile suits."

Trowa nodded. "That sounds like Heero."

The Gundam pilot then turned towards Athrun again. "Heero's given you and the others a great gift; the technology from our world's mobile suits can turn the tide of any battle when paired with the right wielder. Can Cagalli leverage it properly?"

Athrun's eyes widened a little at that. The way Trowa had so suddenly switched track was a bit unnerving, and that wasn't helped by the nature of his question.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"As events continue to unfold, Orb will find itself once again caught between the giants of the Earth Alliance and ZAFT," said Trowa, "From what I understand, the Treaty of Junius Seven forced both superpowers to reduce their armed forces, but the militaries they maintain are still the strongest in the Earth Sphere. Orb's stance of neutrality won't keep it out of the fighting if they decide to go to war again, and both will be looking to draw Orb's military into their fold. Cagalli's connection to Heero and the others is a unique advantage, and it could serve as a useful deterrent if utilized properly."

Yzak folded his arms. "I think you've got the wrong idea. Heero may be friends with Cagalli, but if she openly acknowledges him and the rest of Terminal then Orb will be in violation of the treaty."

"Yeah," Dearka chimed in, "Don't forget; Wing Zero was supposed to be destroyed per the treaty, but Cagalli helped Heero hide it by demolishing a dummy instead. That mobile suit's very survival is enough to potentially drag Orb into a fight with the Earth Alliance and ZAFT."

"And that's not counting everything else Heero's data and expertise have given us in the years since the war ended," said Athrun grimly, "The Buster Cannons on the _Archangel _and the _Dominion_, Epyon Revenant, the Mercurius Kai and Vayeate Kai… we've got a great arsenal thanks to him, but our greatest armaments could be perceived as enough of a threat by the Alliance and ZAFT to start another war."

"Another war's already on the horizon," said Trowa, and there was a very dark look in the eye that wasn't obscured by his bangs, "The strike on Armory One and the attempted colony drop did not occur in a vacuum. There are forces at work that are actively courting conflict, and the power that they've demonstrated so far indicates that they may very well have the means to kick off a new war. At the very least, the tension that their actions have created breeds a climate of fear, mistrust, and anger; that's all the fuel anyone skilled enough at incitement would need to start a firestorm."

Athrun shook his head. "You're wrong. We're not there yet."

Trowa was silent for a moment before responding. "We'll see."

The Gundam pilot then took a sip of his wine and nodded. "Enjoy the party."

Athrun and his two friends watched as Trowa calmly walked out of the room. No one spoke until they were reasonably confident that the Gundam pilot was out of earshot.

"Man," said Dearka as he took a drink, "talk about a buzz kill."

"He may have a point," said Yzak grimly, "Thanks to the Wolf we have a network of intelligence sources in the PLANTs and ZAFT, so we're able to monitor their activity. The Earth Alliance is another story; we don't have nearly the same level of information access regarding their activities. The activity of the past week reeks of their doing, with the exception of the attempted colony drop. If someone wanted to stir up some violence then the attack on Armory One was as good a way as any to do it."

"Only if hardliners loyal to Blue Cosmos were able to put them up to it," said Athrun.

"You know as well as I do that there are plenty of them in the Atlantic Federation," said Yzak, "The Americans didn't try all that hard to clean house after the war when compared to the actions of Canaver's provisional government and the following Durandal administration."

"Maybe," said Dearka, "but it's not like they can field a fleet as big as the armada they assembled for Second Jachin Due."

"Neither can the PLANTs," said Athrun, "It'd be a bloody war of attrition. At least neither side can field nukes or gamma ray lasers now."

"So the lack of super weapons and the likelihood of a long, drawn out war should serve as a deterrent?" said a familiar female voice, "I hope you're right."

The boys turned to see two young women standing in the doorway. The speaker was Miriallia, and right next to her was Flay.

The red-head smiled and shook her head as she looked at her silver-haired boyfriend. "Yzak, only you could go off and find a group to talk about something as grim as a new war in the middle of a party."

Yzak shook his head. "It wasn't my fault. Trowa was the one that started it."

Flay giggled as she walked in and kissed him on the cheek. "Blaming a guest? That's bad manners, Yzak."

"Trust me," said Yzak as he put his arm around her, "If you'd been here you would've sided with me."

"Whatever you say, Yzak," Flay replied as she put her head on his shoulder.

For her part, Miriallia was looking at Dearka and shaking her head in what appeared to be both amusement and exasperation. "Another glass, Dearka? How many is that now?"

Dearka smiled. "Hey, I know my limit. I'm fine, really!"

Miriallia sighed before smiling. "All right, but if you wake up hung over tomorrow you'd better not expect me to make you breakfast."

"Well that's mean!" said Dearka.

Miriallia smirked as she kissed him. "You deserve it."

Athrun had to smile as he watched both couples interact. It was rather strange given that the girls had served on the _Archangel _while the boys had been hunting it during the war, but here they were now, not just friends but also in love. It was a testament to the ideals that Lacus had preached and that the Three Ships Alliance and Terminal had been founded on; peaceful coexistence and friendship between Coordinators and Naturals. For Athrun it was all the proof he needed to know that he had made the right choice in leaving ZAFT to be with Cagalli and Kira. He just wished that Cagalli could be here with him at the moment rather than dealing with her government duties.

"Yo, Athrun?" said Dearka, "You okay?"

"What's up?" asked Yzak.

Athrun shook his head as he realized that the others were staring at him. "It's nothing."

The guys looked convinced, but there was something about the way Flay and Miriallia were looking at him that told Athrun they didn't quite buy it.

"I hope Cagalli will be able to come by sometime this week," said Miriallia, giving Athrun a knowing look, "I think she'd like it here with all our guests."

Flay nodded. "I think it would be good for her."

Athrun smiled. "I'm sure she will when she has the time. Unfortunately her schedule's got her pretty busy right now, especially with the recent events."

"She's got ministers," said Dearka, "Can't they handle some of the work?"

Yzak shook his head. "Come on, Dearka. Our parents were part of the Supreme Council during the war; you remember how they were always at the office, right?"

Dearka nodded. "Yeah, I guess you've got a point."

"It was the same way with my dad," said Flay softly, "He was so busy with his government work that I didn't get to see him all that much."

_And then ZAFT killed him_, thought Athrun grimly, _Just like a ZAFT soldier killed my father in the final battle of the war… although I suppose the circumstances surrounding _his _death are quite different from the demise of Flay's father._

"I bet Cagalli went through the same thing with Lord Uzumi," said Miriallia, "That's probably one of the reasons why she clashed with him so much; they didn't get as much time to really understand each other as they should have."

Athrun sighed. "Politics… it's hard on families and sometimes the world."

"No argument there," said Yzak.

"That's why we need to make sure Cagalli has a place to relax here when she gets the chance," said Miriallia with a smile, "Lord Uzumi's gone, so _we're _her family now."

Athrun nodded and smiled. "You're right about that."

Flay raised her wine glass. "To family."

The others smiled and followed her lead.

"To family," they all said.

_A real family_, Athrun thought as he took a sip, _One that I won't have to fight against… and one whose legacy I won't have to defend the world from._

_ Cagalli…_

_ I'll protect you and the rest of our family with everything I've got!_

….

"Well," said Murrue, "it looks like we had a few casualties."

Heero nodded and smirked as he looked at Duo, who was passed out on one of the couches. "At least they kept the furniture clean… although that'll change if Duo starts drooling."

The party had wrapped up a little bit ago, but due to the amount of alcohol that had been consumed no one would be leaving the estate tonight. That was fine with Heero; they had plenty of room, with both spare beds and a few couches for their friends to sleep off the night's festivities.

Most had retired to their own rooms or the spares, but a few were unable to make the journey up the stairs thanks to all the wine they'd had. A few of them were people that Heero had expected to end up like this; Duo, Dearka, and Lan. However, there were some victims that had taken the young man by surprise, including Priscilla, Yzak, Flay and, most unusually of all, _Quatre_.

_Lan's work, no doubt_, he thought as he looked at the pilot of Sandrock Saladin, whose shoulder was serving as an impromptu pillow for the Chinese Coordinator, _and it seems she fared little better._

Murrue turned to him and smiled. "At least we know that they enjoyed themselves."

"I think everyone did," Heero replied, "It's good to blow off some steam every once in a while."

Murrue put her arm around him. "That's really something, coming from you."

"What do you mean?" asked Heero.

"Just that you didn't use to be the type to embrace a sentiment like that so openly," said Murrue with a smirk before she kissed him on the cheek, "You're grown, Heero."

Heero nodded and gave her a small smile. "I suppose I have."

Murrue lowered her arm and slipped her hand into his. "Come on. Why don't we call it a night?"

"Sounds good," said Heero.

Taking one last look around to make sure their passed out friends were relatively comfortable, the two of them headed out of the living room and made their way upstairs. No lights were on in the house, but the light of the moon shone through the windows and gave them all the illumination that they needed. Heero let Murrue set the pace, and while it was relatively slow, he didn't mind that; it was like she was trying to get him to savor the aftermath of what had been a very entertaining evening.

"How long do you think they'll be able to stay?" asked Murrue.

"I'll introduce them to Erica Simmons tomorrow," said Heero, "They can give her their data and she can start figuring out a way to get them home. It'll probably take a while, though. You sure you're all right with them staying here until then?"

Murrue smiled. "Of course, Heero. We've got plenty of room, after all. They can stay as long as they want."

Heero nodded. "Thanks. I know they can sometimes be a handful, but we couldn't ask for better allies right now."

"They're Gundam pilots, like you," said Murrue with a smirk, "I think being a handful comes with the territory, and I'm just fine with that."

Heero chuckled. "I appreciate that. I just hope that the others don't mind."

"They get along just fine with you, don't they?" said Murrue, "If tonight's any indication then I think that extends to your old friends. Trust me, Heero; you've got nothing to worry about."

Heero nodded. "All right."

As the two of them walked down the hall towards their room Heero found himself lookout out the window and up at the sky. The moon was quite beautiful tonight, but Heero wasn't admiring it at the moment. Luna was more than Earth's sole natural satellite; it was where the bulk of the Earth Alliance space fleet was based out of. He remembered that the modified _Salvager_-class ship that had fled the battle in the Debris Belt had been heading towards the Lunar Perimeter, all the proof Heero needed that the ship and the force that had been with it were connected to the Alliance.

"Heero?" said Murrue as the two of them stopped in their tracks, "Are you all right?"

Heero nodded, although his gaze remained on the moon. "Just thinking."

Murrue followed his gaze. "I wish we had the same level of intel on the Earth forces as we do on ZAFT. It'd be nice to know what they're planning to do with their fleet."

"They didn't spare a single resource to help stop the fall of Junius Seven," said Heero grimly, "and Bogey One only showed up to try to sabotage the efforts to break it up. That's all I need to know that they _want _another war."

"Then we'll stop them," said Murrue firmly, and Heero could feel her hand tightening its grip on his, "Just like last time. ZAFT too, if we have to. I won't let them destroy the life we've built together in our world."

"Agreed," Heero replied as he turned back to Murrue, "and this _is _our world. Murrue, no matter what happens, I want you to know that I am _not _going back with the others when they leave. My part in that world is done; _this world _is my home now."

Murrue smiled as she reached out and put her hand to his cheek. "I know, Heero. I've never thought for a moment otherwise. I know that the Cosmic Era is where you belong now, and that the life we've built together will remain here."

Heero nodded. "That's good. I don't like to make you worry."

Murrue smirked. "This coming from the man who took on Avalon and GENESIS head on?"

"You know what mean," said Heero.

"I do," she said as they started walking again.

All too soon, they reached the door to their bedroom. Heero opened it, but before he could step inside Murrue grabbed his arm.

"Heero," she said, a smile on her face, "thank you."

Heero was confused. "For what?"

She responded by pulling him in for a kiss. "For coming back to me today."

Heero nodded and returned her smile as their lips parted. "Anytime."

Still holding his arm, she brought her other hand up to his cheek. Her gaze met his, and there was a hunger in her eyes that had become a familiar and welcome sight to the Gundam pilot over the past two years.

"The others may be done partying for the night," she said, her voice barely more than a whisper, "but I've still got some energy left, and we've been apart for nearly a week. What do you say, Heero? How about we end this night with a bang?"

Heero nodded and smiled. "I'm game if you are."

Murrue grinned. "Lead on, love."

Without further adieu Heero pulled her inside the bedroom and shut the door behind them.

….

**October 9****th****, C.E. 73**

"You're _late_," Lord Djibril hissed.

Nazara scowled under his mask. "Forgive me, Lord Djibril."

Truth be told, Nazara felt that his delay in filing his report and contacting his superior was quite natural given the turn of events. The Nosferatu could've made it to the Lunar Perimeter by itself just fine, but the Gaia and Ronin were battery-powered, forcing the Colonel to keep pace with Stella and Rodrigues while covertly arranging for a _Typhoon_-class destroyer of the Black Fleet to pick them up. Fortunately the rendezvous had gone smoothly enough, giving Nazara time go over the day's events and properly compile his report. The fact that he was speaking to Lord Djibril in the very early hours of the day following the battle at the ruins of Junius Seven should've been testament to his efficiency as a commander rather than a mark of tardiness, but the Colonel knew that fighting with the head of LOGOS and Blue Cosmos at this point would only serve to prolong a conversation that he wanted to keep as brief as possible.

"You were not pursued?" asked Djibril.

Nazara shook his head. "We made a clean break from the engagement zone, and no one observed our rendezvous with the _Pickett_."

Djibril nodded. "At least you're good at retreating."

A biting reply was on the tip of Nazara's tongue, but he held it back. It was better to bide his time than start a confrontation now.

"The _Girty Lue_, two more Extended and their mobile suits, and four additional machines lost," said Djibril continued icily, "Your losses are becoming quite expensive."

This time Nazara could not help but protest. "If they were lost it is because the C.I.A. and fleet reconnaissance dropped the ball. The _Archangel _and _Dominion _should've been accounted for long before the battle took place."

"They went missing at the end of the last war," growled Djibril, "but the moment Wing Zero showed up on the scene at Armory One you should've assumed that the warships that fought alongside it would make their presence known sooner or later. Intelligence may have failed to find their hiding places, but it was _you _who did not adequately prepare for a possible encounter with them!"

"My preparations were the same any commander would've made under the circumstances!" snarled Nazara, his restraint beginning to weaken, "The _Girty Lue _was cloaked and within perfect position to release her mobile suits, but the disruption of the Mirage Colloid by the launches was an unavoidable risk, one that was minimized in all ways possible given the demands of the operation! You can blame _ZAFT _for letting the enemy steal the Wraiths in the last war for the _Girty Lue_'s detection and destruction!"

"I blame the Coordinators for many things," Djibril sneered, "but the loss of Phantom Pain's flagship is squarely on _your _shoulders! The only reason I'm not more pissed off at you than I already am is that the completion of the _Harbinger _and _Sovereign _will eventually make up for the battleship's destruction."

Djibril raised an eyebrow underneath his mask, his anger temporarily displaced by curiosity. "Then Project Reaper is on schedule? I was under the impression that the yards on Luna and at Heaven's Base had fallen behind."

"They had," said Djibril offhandedly, "but executing the foremen at both facilities provided some much needed incentive for increased productivity. The yards have redoubled their efforts; the dreadnoughts will be operational as planned."

"Then the loss of the _Girty Lue _is inconsequential in the grander scheme," said Nazara, "The two dreadnoughts may lack her stealth capability, but they more than make up for it with firepower and mobile suit capacity."

Djibril glared at him. "Don't think for a moment that the progress made in Project Reaper is enough to dilute the price of your failure. If you hadn't sent the combat footage taken during the battle then it would've been a complete loss. As it is, the fact that no fragments of meaningful and damaging size made it down to the surface forces us to alter our timetable; riling the world up for war will take a little longer now than I was hoping it would."

"The people of Earth will fall into line soon enough," said Nazara, "They haven't changed one bit since the last war; the prejudice and mistrust they have for Coordinators is still quite fresh."

Djibril nodded. "Yes, in no small thanks to the media outlets that are under our influence. All we have to do is word the results of the Atlantic Federation's inquiry regarding the attempted colony drop the right way and we'll have our people howling for blood."

"What about the Orb Union?" asked Nazara, "They're small, but they enjoy a disproportionate influence in global affairs, thanks in no small part to their bitch of a Chief Representative."

Djibril chuckled. "Lord Uzumi's daughter may be popular domestically and internationally, but she's not as big a threat to our plans as you make her out to be. Thanks to divisions within the noble families that we've cultivated over the years she's already outflanked. Orb is already in our pocket; Cagalli just doesn't know it yet."

"The Seirans?" said Nazara, trying not so sound dismissive, "Your predecessor tried to make use of them in the last war. Apart from a handful of dead Coordinators they didn't produce much in the way of results."

"That was then," said Djibril with a smirk, "This is now. The political guard in the Orb Union has changed since the Lion and his cabinet committed suicide during the invasion. Cagalli may be committed to her father's ideals, but she's surrounded by a new breed of nobles, ministers, and advisors. Few have the nerve to stand against either us or the PLANTs. The Orb Union will be forced to pick one side or the other, and thanks to the fear engendered by the devastation they suffered at our hands two years ago they _will _pick us. The Seirans are our most powerful puppets, and they will seize control of the country soon enough."

"What about the Orb military?" asked Nazara, "They were loyal to Uzumi in the last war, and they've shown no signs of abandoning his daughter for the Seirans."

"Their loyalty to Cagalli will make them that much easier to control," Djibril replied, "Unato and Yuna already have a plan in motion that will turn the young Chief Representative into little more than a puppet ruler. Behind the scenes true power will rest with the Seirans, and by extension LOGOS. Cagalli will be a useful stage prop; having her act as the public face of the Orb Union will keep the military behind her and in line."

"It'll be easy enough to fool the enlisted ranks," said Nazara, "but what about the officer corps? They won't be blind to a shift in Orb's internal balance of power."

"By the time they notice the change it will be too late," said Djibril with a smile, "Any action on their part would pose a risk to their beloved young ruler. They won't do anything that would endanger the Lion's daughter."

Nazara nodded but said nothing. Djibril's reasoning was sound, but there was one factor that could throw all their plans into disarray, just as it had in the last war and in more recent events.

Wing Zero.

_What's your play, Heero Yuy?_, he thought, _You were more than just a mobile suit pilot in the last war; you were a political force in your own right. Your appearance on camera in the prison break at the PLANT capital, the viral video of the duel with the Valkyrie, your assassination of Azrael and the final attack on GENESIS… your influence stretches far beyond the battlefield._

Heero Yuy may have disappeared at the end of the last war, but the popular theory both within the Earth Alliance and the rest of the Earth Sphere was that he was somewhere in Orb. Recent events had only further convinced Nazara of that, and his friendship with Cagalli was an open secret. There was no doubt in Nazara's mind that Uzumi's heir had arranged the destruction of the dummy Wing Zero after the war, and she had likely played some behind the scenes role in securing the resources and expertise needed for its upgrade. The same went for the upgraded _Archangel _and _Dominion_, not to mention all the new mobile suits that had shown up over the past week; there was just no way to confirm the full extent of the resources that were at the disposal of the former Three Ships Alliance.

Nazara kept his doubts to himself. Djibril sounded fairly set as far as his current schemes for the Orb Union were concerned, and as Nazara was more of a battlefield commander than a politician such intrigue wasn't his primary focus right now. Whenever Heero Yuy made his move the Colonel would notice soon enough; the actions of Wing Zero's pilot had hardly been subtle in the last war, and the same had gone for the events of the past week.

_Besides_, he thought, suppressing a smile, _having him in the mix makes things interesting. It'd be boring if events followed Djibril's script to the letter. As far as wild cards go the Demon Lord of Avalon is the biggest one out there. Sooner or later he'll enter the fray, and when he does I'll meet him with the Nosferatu, and next time I will not lose._

Of course, in order to improve his chances of victory the Colonel would need to make some changes. It was clear that the upgraded Wing Zero in the hands of the Angel of Ruin outmatched the Nosferatu, despite the fact that the nuclear powered gun-barrel wielding mobile suit was the most advanced unit in the Earth Alliance's arsenal. Nazara's machine would require an overhaul if he was to triumph over his rival, and the Colonel already had a few ideas in mind for that. As soon as he got the chance he would submit them to Phantom Pain's R&amp;D section; he was sure that the brain trust of the Atlantic Federation's secret army would more than be up for the challenge.

"Very well," Nazara said, "That takes care of the Orb Union, but while it may be easy enough to gin up anti-Coordinator sentiment amongst our own people we'll still have to provide convincing justification to declare war."

Djibril nodded. "The battle footage from your machine and the other two will help with that. Our information control specialists will be working overtime to make the necessary edits and alterations in order to provide the public with imagery that will excite the passion within them. Once full domestic support for a new campaign is achieved the rest will fall into place quite easily."

"How long will we give our inquiry?" asked Nazara.

"Leave that to me," Djibril replied, "I want you to focus on your more immediate duties."

"And those would be?" asked the Colonel.

"Force preparation," said Djibril, "Your destroyer is currently headed for the Lunar Perimeter, correct?"

Nazara nodded. "Yes."

"Good," said Djibril, "I want you to go to the Arzachel Lunar Base. Vice Admiral Abbott is already there. You'll begin preparations for fleet mobilization there. Make sure the necessary commanders have their orders and that their battle groups are on standby, but you are _not _to amass a strike force until you receive explicit orders from me; we can't betray our hand until the time is right."

"A strike force," said Nazara with a smirk, "I take it that force's target will be L5. Will we be prepping our hidden arsenal as well?"

"Yes," Djibril replied, "The fleet we launch will only need to keep the Coordinator forces occupied until we can use our nuclear missiles on the colonies."

"What about Requiem?" asked Nazara, "That weapon was designed to guarantee our dominance over the Earth Sphere; I can't think of a better time to unveil it than in the assault on the Coordinator homeland."

"Requiem is not ready yet," said Djibril, "That weapon requires further work, and even with our plans being set back by yesterday's events it still will not be fully operational by the time the new war begins."

"That's a pity," said Nazara, "I had hoped to see it in action."

Djibril smiled. "All in good time. We can use that weapon for more than just destroying colonies, after all. Surface targets will need to be dealt with as well, and when it is ready Requiem will provide a unique way to accomplish that."

"As long as we don't need to capture those targets intact," said Nazara dryly.

"The only ground the Coordinators hold on earth is Gibraltar and Carpentaria," said Djibril, "While it would be nice to reclaim it, the fact of the matter is simply removing the infection from those two points will be satisfactory. It will also serve as a powerful example of Requiem's power and help keep the rest of the world in line."

Nazara nodded. "So that's our plan? A nuclear strike on L5, and then we let the survivors on the surface linger until Requiem is ready to finish them off?"

"We'll have to deploy our surface forces to contain the Coordinators on Earth, naturally," Djibril replied, "but that's only a temporary measure. Once Requiem is fully operational we can finish them off at our leisure. The C.I.A. will then be able to track down whatever small pockets of Coordinators might remain on Earth for us to exterminate."

Nazara smirked. "A swift and orderly cleansing. No long war like last time."

Djibril chuckled. "Thanks to the Coordinators developing N-Jammer Cancellers during the last war we can use their own technology against them. Our forces may be smaller than the armada assembled in the last war, but we still outnumber the Coordinator forces and any other military in the Earth Sphere, and with the Orb Union in our pocket our advantage will be decisive. No one will be able to stand in the way of the fulfillment of our grand design this time!"

Once again the elephant in the room, Heero Yuy, was not mentioned. Once again Nazara held his tongue. If Djibril was not going to mention Wing Zero and not account for that machine and its pilot in his plans then he would have only himself to blame when the Demon Lord of Avalon inevitably entered the fray. Nazara would carry out his orders and take a wait-and-see approach regarding the mobile suit that had interfered with the operations of the last week.

"The world will soon be brought back into its natural state," Djibril continued, "For too long the Coordinator infection has been allowed to fester and grow. This new war will set everything right!"

"I'll make sure that the fleet is ready to play its part," said Nazara.

Djibril nodded. "Yes, and make sure your Extended is ready as well. We will need her abilities and her machine in perfect working order."

"Will I be getting any additional Extended?" asked Nazara.

"Given your propensity for losing them I'm tempted to say no," Djibril replied, "However, with such a momentous operation before us it would be foolish to leave such an important asset on the sidelines. I will contact the Lodonia facility and make sure the appropriate transfers are made. You'll have your Extended; I suggest that you use them wisely."

Nazara nodded and refrained from a biting reply. "Understood, Lord Djibril."

"One more thing," said Djibril, "Your mercenary, Rodrigues; I want him sent back to Earth."

Nazara raised an eyebrow under his mask. "Are you sure? I may not particularly like him, but his talents are useful."

"I'm well aware of that," Djibril replied, "and that's why I want him returned to the surface. Desperado Enforcement will be playing a role in our surface efforts. They're the best PMC operating with us, and I want them to be at full strength for their missions. Whether they'll be deployed against Carpentaria or Gibraltar remains to be seen, but either way they'll be seeing heavy action in our containment efforts while Requiem is brought up to operational status."

Nazara nodded. "Very well. I'll send him and his mobile suit back as soon as I can arrange transport."

"Good," said Djibril.

"Is there anything else that needs to be attended to?" asked Nazara.

"Only that you make sure our preparations proceed with the utmost secrecy," said Djibril, "Keeping our efforts clandestine is vital. If word leaks out about what we are doing the consequences will be severe, especially for _you_."

It was a threat with all the subtlety of a gunshot, but Nazara didn't let it rattle him in the slightest. "Understood, Lord Djibril."

Djibril nodded. "For the preservation of our blue and pure world. Dismissed, Colonel."

Nazara leaned back in his chair as Djibril disappeared from the screen. That had gone about as well as could be reasonably expected under the circumstances. The fact that he would be operating from Luna for the immediate future was a bonus; having access to the expansive facilities and staff of Arzachel Base would be useful for starting the upgrading process for the Nosferatu. Phantom Pain maintained a discreet presence there, as it did at all major Atlantic Federation bases, so he could also use that as an opportunity to check up on other activities the covert organization was conducting.

_Managing battle group commanders and going over my organization's current agenda_, he mused, _Looks like I'm going to be playing the role of administrator for a little while. No matter; if all goes well I'll be back on the battlefield soon enough._

….

"Quite the view, huh?" said a familiar female voice from behind him.

Quatre turned around and smiled as Lan Zhao came out onto the terrace behind him. Her attire was quite casual, a simple pair of blue jeans and a red blouse, but she looked quite lovely all the same.

"Good morning," he said, "How are you feeling?"

Lan smiled as she came up on his right and joined him at the railing. "Better, although contrary to what Shemei says I'm pretty sure it's _not _due to her 'hangover cure'. That thing was disgusting!"

Quatre winced, knowing exactly what she was talking about. "Don't remind me. What did she call that concoction again? A prairie oyster?"

"Whatever it was, it needs to be killed with fire," she replied, "I mean, I can actually think without my head threatening to explode now, but I still feel like I want to throw up."

"The fact that you haven't so far would seem to be a good sign," said Quatre, "I'm pretty sure you handle your liquor a lot better than I do."

Lan grinned as she gave him a playful punch on the shoulder. "Yeah, you're a real lightweight, aren't you, cutie? No need to worry; I'll help you build up some tolerance while you're here. I'll have you drinking your buddies under the table in no time!"

Quatre laughed. "I'm not sure if my liver will survive that. Besides, I'd like to actually remember the time that I spend here."

Lan nodded. "All right, I'll lay off on that one for a little while."

"Thanks," said Quatre as he looked back out at the waterfront, "You know, you weren't wrong about the view. I could get use to this."

"You mean you don't have a beach house or two back in your world?" said Lan with a smirk, "Rich guy like you should have no problem getting his hand on something like that."

Quatre smiled and shook his head. "Money's not the issue; it's simply a matter of time and location. I'm usually up in the colonies, and when I come down to the surface it's typically for short business trips. So I don't really have a reason to invest in a seaside estate."

"Not even as a pad to take a lady to for a romantic vacation?" said Lan with a wink.

Quatre found himself blushing, something that he realized he did quite frequently around this woman. "Well… like I said, I'm just not down on Earth that much."

"Relax, flyboy," said Lan, "I'm just having some fun with you."

Quatre wasn't sure how to respond to that, so he simply nodded and looked back out at the ocean again. To his right Lan leaned forward, and while an untrained observer might think she was simply joining him in admiring the view Quatre could tell she was studying him out of the corner of her eye. The young man was curious as to why he was getting so much of her attention when compared to the rest of his friends, but as strange as it was he actually didn't mind it.

"Mind if I ask you something?" she said to him after a moment.

Quatre smiled. "Go ahead."

"It's about your name," said Lan, "Don't get me wrong, I like it, but I'm just having a little trouble placing the background. Your middle name in particular sounds Arabic, while 'Winner' has a more Western vibe to it."

Quatre nodded. "My family's descendants came from the Middle East and North Africa. We've actually got some pretty strong Berber blood in us. I guess overall you could say that we're Southern and Eastern Mediterranean, merging Arab, Berber, and some European ancestry into our clan."

"Neat," said Lan, "Quite the background you've got. A lot more interesting than my ancestry; just plain old Chinese."

"I wouldn't call that plain," said Quatre, "China's a vast land; there's plenty of diversity there, and I'm sure your ancestry's no exception."

Lan smiled at him, and Quatre was struck by how genuine it appeared; there wasn't a hint of that teasing and playful light that he'd seen from her so far. "That's sweet of you to say… thanks."

"Anytime," Quatre replied.

"Well, 'China' as a country no longer exists in this world; it's actually the Republic of East Asia now," said Lan, "I don't know if it means anything to you, but I was born in Shanghai. My mom was from one of the western provinces, way out in the sticks; she came to the big city looking for work. As for my dad, he already lived in the big city when they met."

There was something in the way that her tone had changed as she'd brought up her father that told Quatre that he was a subject that she'd rather avoid talking about. The Gundam pilot was curious, but he decided that he wouldn't pry into the matter unless she offered up details of her own will.

"Did you ever make it back out to where your mother was from?" he asked.

Lan shook her head. "No, I spent all my childhood in Shanghai until mom and I ran away to the PLANTs. She used to talk about it, though. Mom said that she was from a small village. It was quiet, but the countryside around it was very pretty. I wish I could've seen it with her. I'm not exactly a country girl, but I'm all for checking out new places."

"You've never tried to go out there since then?" asked Quatre.

"Too risky," she said, "The Republic of East Asia may not toe the Atlantic Federation line on all matters, but they are part of the Earth Alliance. I'm not exactly welcome in their territory, and the same goes for everyone that's part of our little group."

Quatre nodded. "I see. I'm sorry."

Lan smiled. "It's all right. I've seen pictures of the area online. It's not the same as going in person, but it's enough for now. Maybe someday in the future I can sneak on out there, but it's not like it's a top priority. Besides, Orb's got more than enough sights to see and places to explore to keep me occupied for a while!"

"I certainly wouldn't mind checking some of those out," said Quatre, "From what I saw on the flight in Orb looks like a very beautiful country."

Lan nodded and winked. "Well, if you're looking for a tour guide then I'm pretty sure I can help you out there!"

Quatre laughed. "I might have to take you up on that."

"Either that or I'll drag you out myself," said Lan with a predatory grin, "Someone's gotta show you a good time while you're here!"

Quatre nodded and smiled. "Well, as long as you don't get me into too much trouble."

Lan smirked. "No promises there, flyboy."

"I'm serious," said Quatre, "_If _I agree to let you show me around the island's hot spots then I want to avoid any difficulties with the locals, including the authorities."

"Relax," Lan replied, "I'll keep us out of the slammer."

She was entirely too casual about that for Quatre's liking, but he supposed that he would have to take what he could get. One thing was for sure; any time spent with this girl would _not _be dull.

Lan sighed. "Well, much as I might like to, I can't stick around here all day."

"You mean you don't live at this estate?" asked Quatre.

Lan shook her head. "I share an apartment with Adaline and Pris. It's pretty nice; decent size, three full bedrooms, and one hell of a view of the city. Plus it gives me easy access to most of the fun spots downtown. Anyway, I know the three of us are going to be heading back there pretty soon."

"I see," said Quatre.

"That's why I wanted to make sure you got this before I left," said Lan as she fished into her pocket and pulled out a smart phone.

"Thanks," said Quatre as she gave it to him, "Where did you get this?"

"Shemei," Lan replied, "and she got it from her husband. He's got one for each of you Gundam pilots; we figured whatever phones you boys might have probably wouldn't get service in our world."

Quatre smiled. "I hadn't even considered that. Good thing Bristow thought ahead."

Lan nodded. "Most of our numbers are already programmed into that, including mine. I've also got your number set into my phone. Don't worry; I'll give you a little bit of breathing room before I call! I know I can be a bit of a handful, so I'm sure you could use a bit of a break from me."

"I wouldn't put it like that," said Quatre, "You're energetic and forward, and you've been very welcoming to me. I appreciate that."

Lan smiled. "You really are a sweetheart, you know that? Do I have your sisters to thank for that?"

"Maybe," said Quatre, "They certainly had an influence there."

Lan leaned in and took Quatre completely off guard by giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. "I'm not complaining. See you around, Quatre. Keep the phone handy; my name will pop up on that screen soon enough."

Quatre nodded, furiously trying to keep from blushing. "I'll keep an eye out for it."

Lan smirked. "You'd better."

….

"Whoa!" said Lunamaria, "This is awesome!"

She'd just arrived in the downtown shopping district of the city, and she wasn't alone. Accompanying her were Shinn, Rey, Meyrin, Vino, Yolan, and, rather surprisingly, Wufei. The Gundam pilot stood out amid the ZAFT soldiers; his casual blue tank-top and white pants were a stark contrast to the military uniforms of Lunamaria and the others.

Lunamaria wasn't unaccustomed to cities; growing up in the PLANTs meant that she'd basically spent her entire life in an urban environment. However, that didn't keep her from being impressed by Orb's capital. For a small island nation its primary city was both large and bustling with activity, and Lunamaria and the others were right in the heart of it. Their shore leave had just begun, the day was young, and Lunamaria was intent on making the most of it.

There were shops of all kinds up and down the street. Clothing and footwear, electronics and entertainment, foreign and exotic goods, more restaurants and smaller eateries than she could count… if she had to pick a place where she could spend her shore leave, this would be right at the top of her list.

While Lunamaria had eyes for the clothing stores, her sister was ogling the electronic shops. Lunamaria still didn't quite get her sister's fascination with the latest gadgets and consumer tech, but she'd long ago stopped arguing with Meyrin about it; she had her interests, and Lunamaria had hers.

"You got that right," said Yolan, and Lunamaria saw him looking at what appeared to be a video game store, "I think we're going to have some fun here! Good thing they let us collect our pay before they dropped us off!"

"Oh, yeah," said Vino, his eyes locked on two local women as they walked past the group, "This is gonna be great!"

Lunamaria shook her head. "Boys…"

"I wonder if there are any decent bookstores around," Rey mused aloud.

"Down the block that way on your right," said Shinn, pointing, "Biggest bookstore in the city."

Lunamaria smiled. "Hah! I knew you'd get into the tour guide spirit sooner or later, Shinn!"

Shinn shook his head and folded his arms. "Don't get the wrong idea! I just wanted to help out Rey. I'm not showing you guys the sights!"

"Why not, Shinn?" said Meyrin, "You grew up in Orb! You're the best person for us to ask about stuff like this."

Shinn shook his head and started walking off. "Sorry, but ask someone else to show you around."

"Hey!" yelled Lunamaria, "Where are you going?"

"None of your business!" Shinn shouted back.

Lunamaria was going to chase after him when a firm hand grabbed her shoulder. Turning around, she was surprised to see that it was none other than Altron's pilot that had stopped her.

"Wufei?" she said, her eyes widening.

Wufei shook his head. "Let him go."

"Why?" she asked.

"Because he clearly wants to be alone right now," said Wufei, "It's better to just let him be."

Lunamaria took one last look at her friend before he was swallowed up by the bustling downtown crowd. Why had Shinn come along with them today if he was just going to split off from the rest of the group as soon as they'd been dropped off.

She sighed; it was pointless trying to find answers now. "Fine. I just hope that he doesn't get himself into trouble."

"If he does it will be his responsibility to deal with it," said Wufei.

"Shinn can take care of himself," Rey added.

"When he's not being a hothead," Vino muttered.

"As long as he doesn't pick a fight with the locals and get his ass arrested he'll be fine," said Yolan.

"It's too bad," said Meyrin, "He would've been nice to have as a guide."

It occurred to Lunamaria that they might have a replacement guide with them. "Hey, Wufei? Are you familiar with this town?"

Wufei shook his head. "Not particularly."

Lunamaria raised an eyebrow, and she wasn't the only one giving the Gundam pilot a questioning look; Rey appeared to be studying him carefully.

_Not familiar with this city?_, she thought, _That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It's an open secret that Heero's friends with Lady Cagalli, and rumors flew around like crazy that he was living in Orb after the war. If Wufei works with him then he should've spent time in Orb as well, right?_

It was strange, but Lunamaria decided that there wasn't much she could really do about that for now. She would just have to hope that that question would be answered with time as she learned more about Wufei.

Rey seemed to be of a similar opinion, because she saw him shrug before walking off in the direction Shinn had pointed earlier. "I'll be at the bookstore for a while if any of you need me. Take care."

Meyrin smiled. "Have fun, Rey! I might join you later."

Rey simply nodded as he continued on his way. Lunamaria wasn't worried; Rey could be cool and distant at times, but he got along well with Meyrin. If her younger sister did join Rey at the bookstore later then she'd be in the presence of someone who could keep an eye on her, although Lunamaria had a hard time seeing Meyrin getting into any real trouble, especially at a bookstore.

"Well, I'm off too," said Yolan as he started heading toward the video game store, "Vino, you want to check this place out with me?"

"Sure," said his fellow mechanic, "Let's go!"

"Hey, Luna?" said her sister as Yolan and Vino walked off, "Do you mind if I go check out that shop over there?"

Lunamaria smiled as she saw Meyrin point over at an electronics shop. "Sis, you don't need my permission for that. Go wherever you want. Just take care of yourself, okay?"

Meyrin nodded. "All right. You want to meet up later for lunch?"

"Sure," Lunamaria replied, "Give me a call and we'll figure something out."

Meyrin smiled. "Sounds good. Have fun! See you later, Wufei. Take care of my sister, okay?"

To Lunamaria's surprise she saw Wufei nod. "All right."

As her younger sister walked off Lunamaria turned to Wufei and folded her arms. "Take care of me? What, you still think I can't handle myself?"

"She cares about you," said Wufei, not phased in the least by her reaction, "I might as well keep an eye on you if we're going to be together today."

Lunamaria smiled. "That's… nice of you. I thought you'd be going off on your own too."

Wufei shook his head. "There's nowhere here that I'm in a particular rush to get to."

Lunamaria looked around, and her eyes settled on a nearby clothing store. "Well, in that case, I'm sure you won't mind if I spend a little time updating my wardrobe. Shall we?"

Wufei sighed, clearly not thrilled by the prospect. "All right. Let's go."

Lunamaria took the lead, occasionally glancing at her companion as they headed towards the store. She didn't quite buy his excuse about keeping an eye on her for Meyrin, but given how hard Wufei was to figure out and how reluctant he was to divulge any real information about himself or his motives she knew that trying to get the truth out of him would be an exercise in futility.

_Oh, well_, she thought, _I still get to spend some time with him, right? Might as well enjoy it._

She took another look at Altron's pilot, an odd thought coming to mind.

This was almost like…

… a date.

Lunamaria shook her head. A _date_? With _Wufei_? Sure, he was handsome, could clearly handle himself in a fight, and his past was a giant mystery that Lunamaria was chomping at the bit to unravel, but his personality… well, to say that it was a bit _prickly _would be a considerable understatement.

_It's not a date_, she silently told herself, _Sure, he's spending some of his shore leave with you, and you're going shopping, but it's _not _a date._

That would've been quite fine if Lunamaria didn't have the feeling that she was trying a bit too hard to convince herself of that.

….

"Ah," said Lunamaria as the two of them walked out of the clothing store, "That was fun!"

_Says you_, thought Wufei, _We spent an hour in there, and for what? Just so you could try on a few outfits? Why did I agree to this again?_

He supposed that things could've been worse. She'd only bought a few things, and their stay could easily have lasted longer. Everything Lunamaria had bought fit into one bag too, so she didn't Wufei's help with carrying anything. Still, spending about an hour inside a clothing store wasn't exactly Wufei's idea of a good time.

Why had he agreed to this again? His excuse about keeping an eye on her for her younger sister's sake rang hollow even to him. Meyrin seemed like a nice girl, but Wufei didn't know her nearly well enough to consider doing her a favor like that. Besides, it wasn't like Lunamaria particularly needed someone to look after her off the battlefield. Despite Wufei's opinion that she was still an amateur in the art of combat the fact remained that Lunamaria still had her basic military training, and that would've included instruction in hand-to-hand fighting. That plus her enhanced abilities as a Coordinator meant that she would be quite capable of handling herself in the event that she got into trouble with any of the locals.

He couldn't say that he was using this time for mentoring her either. It was shore leave, so it would be hardly appropriate to engage in combat training when it was clear that Lunamaria needed to blow off some steam thanks to the events of the past week. Wufei could've stayed on board the _Minerva _and let her be or he could've gone off and explored Orb on his own and maybe make contact with Heero and the others… but he'd chosen instead to stay with Lunamaria.

_What the hell's gotten into me?_, he thought, _I came to this world to find a battlefield where I could fight for justice, not to get preoccupied with some girl._

"Hey," said Lunamaria, "What's up?"

Wufei shook his head. "It's nothing."

She didn't look like she was buying it. Wufei couldn't blame her for that; he was trying to convince himself more than anything else, and he was failing at _that _too. Still, for now it seemed like she wouldn't press the matter, much to his relief.

"Well," said Lunamaria, "thanks for waiting around in the store for me while I tried on those outfits. Is there anything that you want to do? Fair's fair, after all."

Wufei appreciated the sentiment, but he shook his head. "I don't know the area well enough to decide on anything."

Lunamaria smiled. "Come on, there's gotta be something you like to do off the battlefield! Name it, and I bet we can find a place around here that caters to it."

Wufei thought for a moment before chuckling. "Well, in that case… how about that bookstore Rey went to?"

Lunamaria looked a bit taken aback by that. "Really?"

Wufei smirked. "You might not believe this, but I was actually quite the scholar in my home colony before I became a Gundam pilot."

Lunamaria raised an eyebrow before smiling. "You really are full of surprises, aren't you? Okay, then; bookstore it is!"

Wufei nodded. "Let's go."

It didn't take them too long to find the place. Wufei was impressed as they walked in; the store had two levels, with a café taking up part of the second one. It was bigger than he'd thought it would be, and he couldn't help but smile as his mind turned to the past.

_Before I became Nataku's pilot_, he mused, _I could've spent all day in a place like this. I won't make Lunamaria endure anything prolonged here, though; I already have an idea about what I'm looking for._

He spent a few minutes looking around, and while he was sure his wanderings seemed aimless to his companion they were actually quite deliberate. They passed by Rey along the way, with Lunamaria giving him a friendly wave while Wufei simply nodded and continued on his way. It didn't take long for him to find the general section he was looking for; world history.

"Huh," said Lunamaria as they strolled down the aisle, "A guy like you, I thought for sure you'd be going for one of those dark and gruesome fantasy stories that are all the rage these days."

"I can understand the appeal books like that have," Wufei replied, "In many ways they're closer to real life than classic fairy tales, so one can relate to them more. However, that's not what I'm looking for today."

A few moments later he found the particular subsection he'd been seeking; Chinese history. Wufei was well versed in the topic in the A.C. world, but he was interested in where things had diverged between that world and the Cosmic Era. It was more than just curiosity; he had a personal stake in this, and it was at the forefront of his mind as he browsed the titles available.

_I could always just do a search on the web_, he thought, _but I won't get nearly as much detail that way as I would through something like this…_

"What are you looking for?" asked Lunamaria.

"I'll know it when I see it," said Wufei as he scanned the shelves.

A few seconds later a particular title caught his eye, and Wufei leaned in closer. Picking up the book in question, he nodded with approval as he read the title.

_This should do_, he thought as he studied the cover of the thick tome.

He could practically feel Lunamaria looking over his shoulder. "_Houses of Iron: The Great Warrior Clans of China_? Modernized edition, updated C.E. 72... why this?"

"Because," Wufei replied as he opened the book and skimmed the table of contents, "I'm looking for answers."

"To what?" she asked.

Wufei ignored her as he scanned the first couple pages. His heartbeat quickened ever so slightly as one chapter title leapt out at him.

_Indomitable Dragons: The Long Clan._

_ This is it_, he thought, closing the book before Lunamaria could find what he'd singled out and tucking the tome under his arm.

"Let's go," he said as he started walking towards the purchase counter.

"Wait, that's it?" asked Lunamaria, "We only just got here!"

"I have what I want," he replied, "Unless you want to browse for a while I see no reason to linger."

Lunamaria sighed. "Well, I guess I wasn't planning on buying any books for myself today. All right then, let's get a move on."

It didn't take long to get to the cashier. Wufei reached into his pocket and pulled out the credit voucher he'd received from the _Minerva_'s paymaster before he and the others had come into the city today; a token of gratitude from ZAFT for both his service in yesterday's battle and for his continued presence on the ship.

_Having a Gundam on their battleship is a useful deterrent for them_, he mused, _A lot more so than mobile suits like the Impulse, at any rate._

"So," said Lunamaria after he had paid and they were walking out the door, "where next?"

Wufei shrugged. "I don't care either way."

Lunamaria folded her arms. "You know, you could show a bit of enthusiasm. Who knows when we'll get another break like this? We should be enjoying it."

"I am," Wufei replied, "I just don't see the need to make a fuss over it."

Lunamaria sighed. "I swear, I do _not _get you…"

_The feeling's mutual_, thought Wufei, although he refrained from voicing that sentiment.

After a moment Lunamaria shook her head. "Fine, I guess the ball's in my court now. I saw a nice park when they were driving us into town earlier. It shouldn't be too far from here. Want to check it out?"

Wufei nodded. "Sure."

They started walking again, and as they made their way down the sidewalk Wufei noticed that some people were looking at them. Covertly studying their watchers, he surmised after a moment that the real object of their stares was Lunamaria. It made some sense; she was wearing her ZAFT uniform after all, and he doubted that was something the Orb locals saw in their homeland too often. Most of the onlookers seemed simply curious, but Wufei did detect hints of hostility from a few of them.

_The result of yesterday's battle, no doubt_, he thought, _Even in this supposed land of peace and coexistence there are those who are, at the very least, uneasy around Coordinators. No surprise; Coordinator radicals did try to unleash Armageddon with the ruins of Junius Seven. The real question is just how many people in this country blame the PLANTs and Coordinators in general for the attempted colony drop… and how far they'll go with that hostile sentiment._

It was a very interesting situation. Wufei was simply used to the dividing lines being between Earth and the colonies, a holdover from his last war. To have race and genetics thrown into the mix apparently made suspicions and hatreds much more volatile.

For her part Lunamaria didn't seem to be aware of the hostility some of the onlookers apparently had for her. Wufei saw no reason to clue her in; if she couldn't pick up on it by herself then she didn't deserve to know about it. He would, however, keep a careful eye on their surroundings to make sure that no harm came to her.

A couple blocks later he saw his companion smile and point across the street. "Look! There it is!"

Indeed, just up ahead Wufei could see the park that was their destination. For being located in the middle of a dense urban area like this it was of fairly decent size. It mostly consisted of open grass with some paths winding through it, along with a central concrete plaza for events that included a fountain and a pond off to the side. There were small scattered groupings of trees as well to add to the scenery. It looked like there was a decent crowd there today, which wasn't surprising at all given the pleasant weather.

Lunamaria looked both excited and rather impatient as the two of them waited for a chance to cross the street. "It's bigger than I thought it was!"

"What's got you so worked up?" asked Wufei.

Lunamaria put her hands on her hips. "For your information, I happen to _like _places like this!"

"There are parks back in the colonies, right?" said Wufei, "I don't see why you need to get so excited about going to one in Orb."

Lunamaria shook her head. "You don't get it. It's different down here because it truly is open air. I've spent my whole life in the PLANTs; this is the first time I'll be able to lay back on the grass and actually see real _sky _above my head instead of just another colony shaft and walls!"

Wufei was a bit taken aback by her words; he hadn't expected her to be the kind of girl who would care so much about something like this. It prompted a bit of pondering from him; perhaps there was more to this young woman than he'd been willing to admit.

Wufei shrugged as the light changed. "All right, then. I hope you enjoy it."

Lunamaria sighed as the two of them started crossing the street. "You could at least _act _like you're happy for me."

Wufei didn't both replying. Once they were on the other side of the road it didn't take them long to find one of the park's main entrances.

"This way!" said Lunamaria, smiling again as she led him down one of the paths.

Wufei wasn't the type to simply follow someone just because they told him to, but he saw no harm in going along with her. The atmosphere at the park was very relaxing, and it was definitely a nice change of scenery from the battleship _Minerva_ or even the rest of the city for that matter.

He saw Lunamaria take a deep breath, seemingly savoring the fresh air. "Ah, this is great! It's nice to actually have some _green _around me that's just part of a military uniform. And there's hardly a cloud in the sky, either!"

Wufei nodded. "It's… refreshing."

"I wish mom and dad were here right now," she said, "or Meyrin. They'd like this place."

"What do your parents do for a living?" asked Wufei.

"Dad's an architect," said Lunamaria, "and mom's a grade school teacher. I don't think either of them pictured Meyrin and me becoming soldiers."

"When was the last time you contacted them?" he asked.

"I emailed them after the fight yesterday," she replied with a smile, "and so did Meyrin, so they know that we're both okay."

Wufei nodded. "You should keep in touch with them as much as you can. Don't take your parents for granted."

"You're speaking from experience on that, aren't you?" said Lunamaria.

"Yes," said Wufei.

"What happened to yours?" she asked.

"They died," Wufei replied, not bothering to elaborate.

Perhaps sensing the futility of pressing the matter, Lunamaria sighed. "Well… I'm sorry about that."

Wufei shook his head. "Don't worry about it."

After a moment Lunamaria smiled. "I guess now's not the time to really be talking about stuff like that. Let's just enjoy today and forget about the past, okay?"

"Sounds good," said Wufei.

He was surprised when she grabbed his arm and started pulling him off the path. "Come on, let's go over there!"

Wufei didn't know where 'there' was, but he didn't fight Lunamaria as she led him across the field. A few moments later he realized where she was taking him; it was a small hill.

When they arrived at the top of the hill Lunamaria released him before putting her bag down and laying down on the grass. "Ah… that feels great!"

Wufei raised an eyebrow. "You dragged me over here for this?"

Lunamaria sighed. "You idiot… lie down here and look up at the sky with me. Then you'll see what I mean."

Not knowing what else to do, Wufei joined her down on the grass. It was quite comfortable, and made even more so by the pleasant breeze that was blowing through the park.

"See?" said Lunamaria, "After the week we've had, doesn't it feel good to just lay back and chill like this?"

"Did you do this back in the PLANTs?" asked Wufei.

Lunamaria smiled. "Yeah. Whenever I was stressed out I'd go to a park on whatever colony I was at. Just kicking back with the grass and the trees… it helped calm me down. Of course, ever since I joined ZAFT I've had less of a chance to do that. Nowadays I'm more likely to blow off steam at a firing range. I… I really missed this."

Studying her, Wufei saw that she was more relaxed now than she'd been at any time since he'd met her. All the tension that she'd been carrying around since the attack on Armory One seemed to be gently flowing out of her. It was like the grass she was lying on was soaking up all her worries.

_She really needs this_, he thought, _Well, I suppose that there's worse ways to calm down after an eventful week._

"Did you have a park like this in the colony you're from?" asked Lunamaria.

Wufei nodded. "Yes. I used to go there and read quite a bit. It was… refreshing."

Lunamaria looked over at him and smiled. "How about that… looks like you and I have something in common."

Wufei smirked as he turned back towards the sky. "Maybe."

The two of them lay there for a moment, simply enjoying the grass, the cool breeze, and the bit of peace that they'd found in a rather chaotic world. After all that had happened over the past week Wufei realized that Lunamaria wasn't the only one that needed this little break; he could appreciate a bit of breathing room like this as well.

_The battlefield may be where I feel the most alive_, he thought, _but even I need some distance from it now and then. It helps me keep perspective._

"Hey, Wufei?" said Lunamaria.

"What?" he replied.

"Is there… someone in your life right now?" she asked, "Someone… special?"

Wufei closed his eyes for a moment. What she was really asking was all too obvious. The easiest thing to do would be to just tell the blunt truth, which was 'no', and be done with it. However, for Wufei that was only part of the truth.

_**She**__ passed on from the world of the living_, he thought, his mind going back to a battle long since fought and a colony long since destroyed, _but… her spirit remains with me. As long as I pilot Nataku, __**her**__ will remains, and __**her **__fight for justice will continue._

"There was, once," he finally replied.

"Oh," said Lunamaria, and as he looked over at her he couldn't help but notice her very keen interest, "What happened between you two?"

"She burned with a fire of justice," said Wufei, "but the world couldn't accept it. She gave everything she had for her ideals… including her life."

"I'm sorry," she said softly, and from what Wufei could tell she seemed quite sincere about that.

Wufei looked back up at the sky and smiled. "It's okay. Believe it or not… you remind me a bit of her."

Glancing back over at Lunamaria, Wufei had the satisfaction of seeing her eyes widen considerably. "Really?"

Wufei nodded. "Yeah. You two probably would've gotten along great… and driven me crazy in the process."

Lunamaria smiled at him. "She must've been an amazing woman."

Wufei turned back to the sky. "She was."

_The most amazing woman in the Earth Sphere_, he thought, _None could match the fire that burned in her heart._

_ Meilan Long…_

_ …my wife._

….

His gaze focused out the window, Shinn was jolted by the announcement over the bus's intercom. "Now arriving at Memorial Park."

Shinn shook his head as the bus came to a stop and he stood up. It had arrived faster than he'd expected it would, but then again he'd been so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he'd barely paid any attention to the journey.

It took him mere moments to make his way down the aisle and get off the bus. His uniform drew a few curious stares, but Shinn had long stopped paying onlookers any mind. Any other day and he might enjoy the attention he was getting, but right now he had much more important things on his mind.

_So this is it_, he thought as he looked around, _It's… not what I expected._

He could've done some more research online, but Shinn's expectations had been so low for his former government that he hadn't done anything more than look up the bus route he'd need to take to get to his destination. He'd figured that the Orb Union had done some sort of small, out of the way memorial for those who had died during the war, but what he saw now was actually much more than that; clearly someone had put serious work into it.

It was a broad park built on a cliff that overlooked a field of flowers that lay just behind the beach. A long central walkway went right through the heart of it, and it was framed on both sides by rows of trees. These weren't just any trees, though; as Shinn started walking forward he could see that they were artificial, likely some sort of metal. Their 'leaves' were actually white tassels secured to the branches. Examining one closely, Shinn was shocked to realize that there were names engraved in the surface.

"No way…" he said softly as he walked around the tree.

Sure enough, there were names all the way around it, and as he inspected the 'tree' right next to it he saw the exact same thing. None of the names in particular stood out to him, but he knew instinctively that they belonged to someone from Orb who had perished in the war, whether they had resided in the homeland or the colonies.

Shinn started walking down the path again. He had no idea what sort of system the designers had used for placing the names, so he highly doubted that he would be able to find his family in all of this. Shinn regretted his earlier negligence; if he'd bothered to do some basic research he might've been able to find the names of his parents and sister here.

_It looks like someone actually did care about the people who died in the war_, he mused, _and they were able to get some money to put together a decent memorial. That's… something, I guess._

The artificial trees weren't the end of the memorial. Up ahead Shinn saw that the pathway he was on opened up into a broader circle. At the center of that circle was a slightly elevated platform with a tapered white spire built on it, and at the top of that spire there was a golden sun. There were no memorial trees surrounding this part; here it was open, with a clear view of the field of flowers down below the cliff and the beach beyond that. As Shinn approached the spire he could see that there was an engraving at the base of it; a dedication to all Orb citizens and refugees who had taken shelter in that country and had perished in the war.

Shinn didn't know why, but he could feel his hands turn into fists as he looked at the memorial. Sure, it was a nice tribute, but that didn't change the fact that the people that the Orb Union had pledged to protect had been slaughtered during the war. Orb had failed in its duty to defend its citizens; did the government think that they could just wash that failure away with a pretty memorial?

Almost without thinking about it, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. It wasn't his; the casing on this one was pink, and Shinn didn't really go for that particular color. That wasn't why he had this phone, though; it was all he had left of someone very dear to him.

Instinctively he pressed a button, and the voice message started to play. "Hi there, you've reached Mayu's voicemail. I'm sorry I can't come to the phone, but leave me a message and I'll get right back to you!"

Shinn clenched the phone so hard that he wouldn't be surprised if the case cracked. "Mayu… why…"

_Why did you have to die?_

He missed his parents as well, but for some reason Mayu's death on that terrible day in the Elysium colony had hurt the most. Was it because she was the youngest of his family members to perish, and therefore the most innocent? Was it because of the countless hours they'd spent both playing and fighting together as kids, hours that Shinn could never have again now? Was it simply because the bright future that she'd deserved had been so cruelly taken away from her?

It was all of the above and more.

"Orb…" he hissed under his breath, "You… you were supposed to protect Naturals _and _Coordinators! So then why… why did _we _have to suffer the most?"

Orb's casualties in the last war were mixed. While Naturals made up the majority of both the civilian population and the members of the armed forces, the Coordinator minority was still quite sizeable and well represented. As far as battlefield losses were concerned Shinn hadn't bothered to look up the figures, but he _had _researched the numbers on civilian deaths… and a disproportionate amount of those were Coordinators.

And a good chunk of them were Coordinator refugees who had been murdered at the Battle of Elysium.

Refugees who had been left out in the open, completely exposed when the Earth Alliance forces had penetrated the colony's defenses. Sure, the citizens who had lived in the colony were for the most part able to get to the shelters, but hardly any effort at all was made to get the refugees to a safe place. That should've been done at the first sign of an attack, but what paltry efforts that did take place had done so mere moments before the enemy had broken into the colony, by which time it had been too late to avert the bloodbath that followed.

It was that negligence and failure on the part of the Orb Union that had caused Shinn to turn his back on the country. As soon as he was able to once the war was over he applied for and was granted asylum status in the PLANTs, and had become a full citizen shortly thereafter. Adjusting to his new home had been quite easy, apart from the pain that he had carried in his heart ever since the day his family was murdered. He'd never planned on returning to Orb, even if it was just for a short stay, but here he was now.

"_Birdee!_"

Shinn almost jumped out of his boots as he looked for the sound of the high-pitched chirp. He found it just a few meters above his head in the form of a green and yellow bird, one that Shinn quickly realized was mechanical.

"What the hell?" he said, his eyes widening.

The strange machine flew off to the left, and as Shinn followed it he saw that it was heading towards a young couple standing not too far from the cliff. Their backs were to him, but they both appeared to be in their late teens. The boy was wearing black pants and a jacket, while the girl had on a simple blue and white dress with thin straps that exposed her rather pale shoulders. The boy's hair was brown and not exactly out of the ordinary, but it was the girl's hair that caught Shinn's eyes. It was long and flowing…

…and bright pink.

"No way…" he said softly, "It can't be…"

He slowly walked towards the couple. As Shinn approached he saw that they were standing before what appeared to be a pair of memorial markers that were separate from the main spire that dominated the end of the pathway. Shinn wasn't sure what these particular markers were for, but they were secondary concerns; what really had his attention was the girl…

…who looked an awful lot like Lacus Clyne.

The famous singer had completely vanished after the war, along with many of her associates. Rumors had flown around like wildfire about where she'd gone, with more than a few centering on the belief that she was now on Earth. The Orb Union was on the list of suspects, but Shinn had never thought for a moment that he might actually run into her here. Of course, this girl might not actually be the legendary singer; for all Shinn knew she could just be a fan who had copied her appearance.

"_Birdee!_" he heard the mechanical bird chirp from up above, and a few seconds later Shinn saw it land on the boy's shoulder.

The young man turned and smiled at his artificial pet. "Did you enjoy yourself, Birdee?"

It was at that moment that he appeared to catch sight of Shinn, because he looked over at him and nodded. "Hello."

The girl that was with him turned around and smiled as Shinn approached them. "Oh, hello there! How do you do?"

The two of them appeared to be around Shinn's age, maybe a year or two older. It was striking just how much the girl's face looked like that of the famous songstress from the PLANTs; she was a splitting image of Lacus Clyne. Shinn felt like he should've recognized the young man that was with her from somewhere, too, but for the life of him he could not figure recall having ever seen him before.

Not knowing what else to do, Shinn just nodded. "Fine. Uhm… did you make that thing?"

"Oh, Birdee?" asked the young man, "No, a friend of mine did years ago. Pretty cool, huh?"

Shinn had to agree with that, and to his surprise he even found himself smiling slightly. "Yeah, it is. Your friend must be pretty talented with robots."

The pink-haired girl nodded and smiled. "Oh, yes, absolutely! He made me some robot companions as well! I wish I'd brought one with me today…"

"Do you two come here often?" Shinn asked.

The young man shook his head. "Actually, this is only our second time."

"We felt it was appropriate given what happened yesterday," said the girl, "A great tragedy was averted, and many lives were saved."

"Who knows what would've happened had the ruins of Junius Seven been allowed to impact the Earth?" said the boy, "Even if it had been as fragments it still could've been a disaster."

"People still died," said Shinn bitterly, "A lot of ZAFT soldiers lost their lives to stop those ruins from falling."

"Yes," said the girl, "and we're profoundly grateful for their sacrifice. They deserve a memorial like this one at the very least for what they've done for humanity."

"Speaking of memorials," said Shinn, pointing at the two markers behind them, "what are those for? I thought that spire back there was the memorial for the war victims."

"Well," said the boy, "we were just reading them. They're separate ones. The one on the right is for those who died during the Alliance's invasion of the Orb mainland, and the one on the left is for those who were killed in the attack on the Elysium colony."

Shinn stepped forward to look at the second one. "Let me see."

The boy and the girl moved aside for him, and Shinn saw that the second marker had an engraved image of the Elysium colony on it. Words were carved in beneath the image, but Shinn didn't pay them much attention; his eyes were fixed on the image of the colony.

"Are you okay?" asked the boy.

"Did you know someone who died at Elysium?" asked the girl.

Shinn nodded and answered without thinking. "My family."

The girl closed her eyes and bowed her head. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah," said Shinn absently.

He looked past the memorial and out at the field of flowers. "All this would've been flooded if the debris had come down, and all the plants would've died. It just goes to show that you can't hide the truth."

"What do you mean?" asked Kira.

"Humans keep saying how life is precious and beautiful," said Shinn bitterly, "but they don't hesitate to destroy regardless of value and beauty. Human lives are snuffed out without a thought by monsters, just like this field of flowers would've been. People don't care about anyone other than those closest to them."

The girl shook her head. "No, humans aren't all like that. There are only a handful of these 'monsters' that you describe; the vast majority of mankind is made up of good people."

"She's right," said the boy, "You can't paint mankind as a whole with a brush that broad. Yes, the people that attacked your colony and murdered your family were evil, but I know that the vast majority of people, whether they're Natural or Coordinator, were appalled at that massacre and all the other atrocities that took place in the last war."

"You cannot lose hope in people," said the girl, "I understand that you've suffered a terrible loss, but would your family want you to hold the rest of mankind with in such contempt?"

Shinn looked down. "I'm sorry… I didn't mean to be so morbid."

He didn't know why, but at that moment Shinn felt so flustered that he couldn't bring himself to meet the gazes of either of them. Was it frustration? Shame? Anger? All of the above?

It didn't matter. All Shinn wanted to do at that moment was to get out of there, and that's exactly what he did.

"Hey, wait!" he heard the boy yell behind him as he took off.

Shinn didn't stop. He rushed for the parking lot as fast as he could. Coming here had been a mistake. All it had done was reopen old wounds. Shinn didn't care where he went next as long as it wasn't here.

_I'm never coming here again_, he thought, _This park _and _this country! The sooner the Minerva leaves Orb the better!_

….

"That poor boy," said Lacus softly.

Kira nodded. "Yeah…"

The young ZAFT soldier had run off so suddenly that Kira and Lacus didn't have a chance to follow him. Perhaps that was for the best, though; Kira doubted the boy wanted to talk to anyone else right now.

Still, his words were troubling. His red uniform meant that he was an elite ZAFT pilot, charged with defending the lives of Coordinators, but his attitude about humanity was dark and pessimistic. It reminded him, rather uncomfortably, of a certain ZAFT Field Marshal that he had fought against in the final battle of the last war.

Rau Le Creuset.

The boy didn't appear to have sunk to that same level of despair, hatred, and madness, but Kira could tell that the ZAFT Red was in a rather precarious position. The murder of his family during the last war was a powerful scar for him to bear, and having survived the hell of that conflagration Kira could definitely understand how it would shape the boy's psyche even two years later. However, if the boy could not find a way to offset that pain with some sort of positive motivation and hope for the future then he would be threatened by the same dark path that Creuset had gone down, and he could endanger countless lives in the process.

"That must be one of the _Minerva_'s mobile suit pilots," said Lacus, "We should ask Athrun and Heero about him. It might provide some insight."

Kira nodded. "Yeah… maybe."

He felt Lacus grab his hand. "Kira? What's wrong?"

"That pilot," said Kira, "I… I feel like I've met him before."

"Really?" asked Lacus, "Where from?"

Kira shook his head. "I can't remember. I think it was during the war, but beyond that… I don't know."

Lacus nodded. "I see. He seemed so angry… and so sad. I don't think he's really found a way to heal from the pain he suffered when he lost his family. I wish we could help him."

Kira nodded. "If he took the time to really talk to you I think you could help him. I mean, you can relate to him when it comes to the loss of a family member."

Lacus closed her eyes solemnly. "Yes. When my father was murdered, I felt as though my heart had been torn to a thousand pieces. Were it not for you and the others I would've been lost to grief forever."

Kira shook his head. "That's not true. You're a strong woman, Lacus. You would've moved forward eventually."

Lacus smiled. "That's nice of you to say, Kira, but I know the truth; it was only thanks to my friends that I was able to heal from that tragedy. Andrew and Aisha, Shemei and Eric, the girls… and you. You more than all the others, Kira."

Kira felt himself blushing. "I… I wouldn't go that far…"

Lacus giggled. "Modest as ever… at least some things never change."

Kira didn't know how to respond to that, so he simply smiled while his girlfriend held his hand. The two of them looked out past the memorial markers at the field of flowers and the beach and sea beyond.

_If that pilot has friends on the Minerva with him_, thought Kira, _I hope that they're able to help him. He can't keep letting the past define him; otherwise he could go down a very dark path…_

Kira shook his head. Ultimately that boy's path would be his choice and his alone. If he let his grief and anger guide him to the point that he became a threat then Kira and the others would deal with that when the time came.

He turned to Lacus and smiled. "Come on, let's get going. We're supposed to meet up with Dearka and Miriallia for lunch in a little bit, remember?"

Lacus nodded. "Right. I wish Yzak and Flay could come as well."

Kira nodded. "Me too, but it sounded like they wanted to have some time with just each other right now. We can always meet up with them some other time."

Lacus smiled. "You're right. Let's go."

….

"Well, look at you, tiger!" said Aisha with a smile as she approached Heero, "Haven't seen you dressed up in a while, Heero."

To her right, Heero saw Waltfeld chuckle and nod. "Looking good, Heero. Where's the lucky lady?"

Heero nodded up the stairs. "She's freshening up. Murrue should be down here soon; Akila said that dinner was just about ready."

"That was so sweet of you to ask her to help you with this little romantic dinner idea of yours!" said Aisha, "I know how much she loves to help you out, and I'm sure Murrue's going to enjoy it… especially since you freshened up a bit yourself, you handsome devil!"

It wasn't a full tuxedo, but Heero was definitely treating tonight's dinner as more than a casual affair. He'd decided to keep it a step below black-tie, but Heero had still put some work into his appearance and had given Murrue time to do the same. He wore a dark blue button-up shirt, black dress pants and polished dress shoes.

"I thought you two were going out tonight," said Heero, "Dinner and a movie, wasn't it?"

They were certainly dressed up for a date night. For Aisha her choice of attire was a light red blouse and a black skirt, while Andrew had gone with dark jeans and a dark green button-up shirt. Both of them looked like they had cleaned up a bit too, and Heero could smell a hint of perfume coming from Aisha.

The Desert Tiger nodded. 'That's the plan, but Aisha wanted us to check up on you before we headed out."

Aisha winked at him. "I just wanted to wish you luck with your little date night, Heero, although from the looks of things I doubt you'll need it!"

"Thanks," Heero replied, "I hope you two enjoy yourselves."

"We plan on it," said Andrew with a smile.

"Have fun!" said Aisha as the two of them headed for the door.

Heero nodded as he watched them leave before turning back towards the stairs. The two of them deserved a night out; their work for Terminal had kept them quite busy the past few weeks. Then again, the same could be said of Heero.

Not that he hadn't had a chance to relax since coming home yesterday. The party they had thrown the night before had certainly been fun, and today so far hadn't been too shabby either. Heero had spent some time with Duo, Quatre, and Trowa enjoying the considerable amenities the estate had to offer. These included a hidden firing range for target practice, a basketball court, a billiards table, and a small gym complete with exercise equipment and a sparring ring.

Hanging out with his old friends like that, off the battlefield, had been a nice change of pace. However, Heero had also wanted to spend some time with his girlfriend, and it hadn't been too hard to arrange that. Murrue had spent much of the day with her mother, but she had also spoken with Heero and had arranged with Shemei and Eric so that they would show the three visiting Gundam pilots a few of the sights outside of the estate in order to give the Perfect Soldier and the lovely Captain of the _Archangel _some space.

_Tonight will be nice_, he thought, _I know Murrue's wanted to do something like this for a while now. So have I, but the prep work for my scouting mission to Armory One kept us busy, not to mention the events that took place after I arrived there. Tonight we can make up for lost time._

He heard footsteps coming from above, and a few seconds later the lady of the hour appeared at the top of the stairs. "Sorry for the wait."

Heero smiled as he looked up at the woman of his dreams. "Worth every second."

That she was. She'd kept with their mutual agreement about tonight's date being 'semi-formal', but she still looked absolutely stunning regardless. While white was usually Murrue's color of choice when it came to a special occasion, tonight she'd gone in the other direction. Her dress was as black as night, and the way its straps wrapped up around her neck made it bare the soft, light skin of her shoulders in a lovely contrast. Her long brown hair flowed as freely as ever, but there was a special lustrous sheen to it tonight. Small blue stones dangled from the earrings she wore, which matched perfectly with the blue stone of the necklace that she wore; the Tear of Isis that he'd bought her during their time in North Africa over two years ago. The lipstick she wore tonight was a darker shade of red than what she normally preferred, but to Heero it was quite appropriate for the evening.

She smiled at him as she slowly walked down the stairs, batting her eyes and putting just a hint of extra movement into the sensual sway of her hips as she gradually, almost teasingly approached him. "I've always said that you clean up nicely. Looking sharp tonight, Heero."

"Thanks," he replied as she reached the bottom of the stairs, "You look _beautiful_."

Murrue leaned in for a quick kiss. "I'd call you out on flattery, but I know that's not your style."

Heero chuckled. "I'm too honest for my own good."

"That's a feature, not a bug," said Murrue with a smirk, "Never change it."

"Is than an order from you as my Captain?" said Heero.

"Your Captain _and _your lover," Murrue replied with a wink, "I trust you'll have no problem following it."

Heero smirked. "Roger that."

She looked him up and down, her smile only growing as she teasingly ran her hand up his chest and neck, resting it on his cheek. "Dressed to kill… are you expecting combat tonight, Heero?"

"Only if you're planning on sparring in that dress," said Heero.

Murrue giggled. "As much as I enjoy working up a sweat with you in the ring, I'd rather save any physical exertion for later tonight. I trust you're up for the challenge?"

"Always," said Heero, knowing _exactly _what kind of 'challenge' she had in mind for when they got behind closed doors later on.

She then slipped her hand into his. "Well the, shall we?"

"I was hoping you'd say that," Heero replied as the two of them started walking towards the back door.

They were outside a few moments later, a light and pleasant evening breeze blowing through the air. It wasn't hard to spot their table; it was illuminated by a trio of candles, and standing right next to it was none other than the Valkyrie's mother.

"Akila," said Murrue with a smile as Heero and her approached, "You shouldn't have…"

Akila shook her head and smiled in return. "Please, it was nothing, Murrue. When my godson asks for help with setting up a date, I find it awfully hard to say no."

"Thank you for your assistance with this," said Heero as he pulled a chair out for Murrue.

Akila nodded. "You're welcome, Heero. Now, I think I'll get out of your hair. The food's good to go, so you two feel free to dig in!"

"We will," said Murrue as she sat down, "This looks delicious!"

Heero had to agree with that. As he took a seat across from Murrue he eyed the meal that the Valkyrie's mother had prepared for them. The main dish was smoked salmon, with a baked potato and a roll on the side of each. Two empty glasses sat on the table, and in the middle there was a bottle of red wine with an opener lying right next to it.

"Care for a drink?" said Heero as he grabbed the bottle and opened it up.

Murrue nodded. "Absolutely."

After filling both their glasses Heero raised his. "To a night just for us. No distractions and no company."

Murrue smiled and gently touched her glass to his. "I'll drink to that."

They took a sip of their wine, savoring the rich flavor. After that they started digging into their respective meals.

"What a lovely evening," said Murrue as she started carving up her salmon, "You picked a perfect night for this, Heero."

Heero chuckled as he buttered his roll. "Well, I got lucky with the weather. If things went south I was going to have us do this inside. I'm glad I didn't have to do that."

Murrue nodded. "As am I."

Heero watched as she looked out at the night sky, her gaze on the stars and moon above. "It's so beautiful… you know, sometimes I still can't believe how far we've come. If you'd told me during the war that we'd end up living at a place like this when it was over I might've called you delusional, Heero."

"I would've agreed with you," Heero replied, "I never pictured myself living in place like this, in this world and my old one."

Murrue smiled. "And to think some of the people we fought against would've taken accommodations like these for granted. Azrael, the Atlantic Federation High Command, Patrick Zala… they were the ruling class of their societies, and yet we triumphed over all of them. A ragtag group of renegade soldiers, civilians… and a pilot from another world. Talk about an unlikely coalition, especially one that was able to survive and triumph in humanity's largest war."

Heero nodded. "Those were long odds, even by my standards. Still, we made it."

"That we did," said Murrue, "and here we are, two years later. I'm glad we were able to settle down in Orb. It's a beautiful country."

"Yeah," said Heero, "and it's recovered quite well from the invasion."

Murrue nodded. "Yes. All things considered, the recovery was very quick. Cagalli did an excellent job with that. Her father would be proud if he could see her today."

"I'm sure he would," Heero replied, "Although I doubt governance is what Cagalli particularly wanted to be involved in after the war. She's not the type to really have the patience for administration and politics."

Murrue sighed. "I know what you mean. It would've been so much better if Cagalli could've assumed a role that didn't involve such grave responsibilities. Still, due to the way Orb's system works she was the natural successor to her father. I'm not usually a fan of hereditary power, but I'm willing to make an exception for Cagalli; she truly cares for her country and her people. They couldn't ask for a better leader and protector."

"I agree," said Heero, "and it's our responsibility to help her protect her people. It's the least we can do after she allowed us to build a new home for ourselves here after the war."

Murrue smiled. "Home… yes, it is. When I was growing up in the Atlantic Federation I couldn't imagine calling another country home, but that's what the Orb Union has become for me. For both of us."

"Any regrets?" asked Heero.

Murrue shook her head, and her smile grew. "None whatsoever."

The two of them spent a few minutes eating in contented silence. Occasionally their eyes would meet from across the table, and the light Heero saw in Murrue's eyes was all the evidence he needed to know that tonight was exactly what she needed.

_I think I needed this, too_, he mused as he enjoyed the food and his girlfriend's company, _Before I met Murrue I wouldn't really have thought of setting up a quiet night like this, one where I could just relax with someone and forget about the rest of the world for a while. After a week like the one we've had, though, I think a night like this was definitely in order._

"How's your mother doing?" he asked after another minute or so of eating, "The past week couldn't have been easy on her."

"She was stressed for a while,' Murrue replied, "but ever since we returned to the surface she's been much more relaxed."

Heero nodded. "I'm glad to hear that. The fact that she was stressed shows how much she cares about you."

"And _you_," said Murrue with a smile, "The first thing she asked me when she heard about the attack on Armory One was if you were okay. Believe it or not, she worries almost as much about you as she does about me."

"Really?" asked Heero, not quite sure what to make of that.

"Of course," said Murrue, "She really does care about you, Heero, and it's not just because you make me happy or that you saved my life in the last war. You helped arrange to bring her here after the war so she and I could be reunited. She's never forgotten that, and she practically considers you to be family now."

"Family…" said Heero softly, "I see…"

"Something wrong?" asked Murrue.

Heero shook his head. "I'm just not used to so many people thinking of me like that. Family's not something I've got a whole lot of experience with."

Murrue smiled. "Well, then it's a good thing you've got all of us around to help fix that, isn't it?"

Heero gave her a small smile in return. "Yeah, you're right."

Murrue reached across the table and grabbed his hand. "You've come a long way, Heero. I know you feel that there's still so much that you have to learn and adjust to, but believe me, the progress you've made since I've met you has been nothing short of remarkable. You've moved well beyond finding meaning only on the battlefield; you have a life outside of combat now, and it's with us."

Heero nodded. "Yes… and you most of all, Murrue. Without you I'd be completely lost in this world."

Murrue shook her head. "You're strong and resourceful, Heero. You would've found your way to where you wanted to be eventually."

"You're wrong," Heero replied, "I may have been able to survive, that much is true, but as for where I wanted to be, that's a different matter. I didn't _know _where I wanted to be. Not until I met you."

He had the satisfaction of seeing her blush a little at those words. "Heero… I think you might be overstating my role a bit there."

Heero shook his head. "No. I know for a fact that I wouldn't have become who I am today without you, Murrue. I wouldn't have found the purpose that this new life has given me. I owe all that to you, and it's a debt I'll be repaying for the rest of my life. Thank you, Murrue."

Murrue smiled. "You're most welcome, Heero."

The two of them continued to eat, enjoying the savory food and the pleasantly cool evening breeze. There was no need for additional words; they would've been superfluous at this point.

Eventually the two of them finished their meal and drink. Heero stood up, and Murrue followed his lead.

"What now?" she asked.

"The night's young," said Heero, "and Akila told me earlier that she'd be willing to clear the table once we were done. How about a walk on the beach?"

Murrue smiled as she slipped her hand into his. "I'd like that."

He slowly led her down the stairs and onto the sand. Down here the scent of sea salt on the wind was more pronounced, but Heero didn't mind a bit. Quite the contrary; he'd come down here many times since they'd moved to Orb in order to think and relax, and the smell was part of this area's charm.

"I don't think I wore the right shoes for this," said Murrue, looking down at her heels.

"Then lose them," said Heero, "We'll come back here soon enough."

Murrue nodded and winked. "Fine, but only if you do the same."

"I think my shoes are just fine for the beach," Heero replied.

"Perhaps," said Murrue, "but fair's fair; if I'm walking barefoot out here then so are you."

Heero chuckled. "When you put it that way, I suppose I can't refuse."

**Start "Love Deterrence (MGSV Instrumental)"**

So he followed her lead, and a few seconds later the two of them were walking barefoot down the beach, hand in hand. They'd done this before, and to Heero it never got old.

"I love it down here," she said with a smile, "The smell, the breeze, the sound of the waves… this is paradise for me."

Heero nodded. "I know what you mean. Growing up in the colonies, all I knew about life down on Earth was what I could find online. When I first got to the surface I was amazed at what I found around me when I wasn't in the middle of a fight. I think seeing the ocean was one of my favorite parts."

"Back when I lived in the Atlantic Federation we would take family trips to the beach in the summer," said Murrue, "I always looked forward to those outings. Having a beach here has definitely made it easier for mother to adjust to being out here as well."

"I'm glad," Heero replied, "She sacrificed a great deal when she let us smuggle her out of the Atlantic Federation after the war."

Murrue shook her head. "Not as much as you think. From what she told me, our old homeland lost its appeal to her the moment it tried to set you and I up at Alaska. Sure, mother had to leave the life that she was familiar with behind, but since I was already in Orb it made the transition a lot easier."

"Having the rest of our friends greet her with open arms helped as well," said Heero.

Murrue smiled. "Without a doubt. I know that having people like Akila and Soran made a huge difference for her since their closer to her age; it's much easier for her to relate to them, all the more so since their daughter's a soldier as well."

"They do have a way of making people feel welcome," said Heero.

"And inviting them into their family," said Murrue with a wink, "You've got some special godparents, Heero."

Heero gave her a small smile in return. "You're right."

They walked along in silence for a few minutes before Murrue tugged on his arm. "Come on, this way!"

Heero let her guide him towards the water. "I like the ocean as much as you, Murrue, but we're not exactly dressed to swim."

"Your point?" she replied with a smirk.

Heero chuckled. "Fine, but you're the one that gets to clean that dress once it's done in the saltwater."

"Oh, I'm shaking at the thought of it," said Murrue with a laugh as she pulled him closer to the water.

A sudden chill went through Heero's body as his feet hit the water. It wasn't too cold, but the suddenness of it had caught him off guard. After a few seconds he could already feel himself adjusting to it.

"Ah," Murrue sighed as she stood next to him, the last vestige of a wave lapping over her feet, "I _love _this feeling."

Heero nodded, glad to see that she was enjoying herself. "It's nice."

Murrue smiled at him, and Heero could see a playful look in her eyes. "You know what I love even more?"

"What's that?" asked Heero, a small warning bell going off in the back of his mind.

"This!" Murrue replied as she kicked water up at him.

Heero chuckled as the spray hit his chest and face. "You know what this means, right?"

"Oh, I don't know," said Murrue with a wink as she sent another splash of water his way, "You tell me!"

"I'll do more than that," said Heero with a smirk as he retaliated by kicking up a splash of his own.

Murrue giggled as Heero's counterattack hit her on the stomach and chest. "Mmmm, I'm wearing the wrong dress for this. I should've gone with the white one. Too bad; you would've enjoyed the show."

"I already am," said Heero as he sent more water her way.

This time Murrue ducked down and used her hands to fling water at him. "Are you cold yet? If you want to surrender then I'll gladly accept it!"

"Not a chance," said Heero as he returned fire.

Murrue gave a small yelp as the water hit her right in the face. "Oh! You're going to pay for that!"

Rather than splash him again, Murrue took Heero completely by surprise by charging him. Before he could react she tackled him, and the two of them tumbled down into the surf. They were still well into the shallows, but the soft sand was more than enough to cushion their fall.

Murrue landed on top of him, but before Heero could get up she proceeded to pin him. She straddled his waist and held both his hands above his head.

"Gotcha!" she said with a smile.

Heero smirked. "You really think so?"

He could turn the tables on her in an instant, and they both knew it. Murrue had picked up a few new moves thanks to Heero's tutelage, but the Perfect Soldier was by far the superior close-quarters combatant. However, Heero had no intention of taking advantage of his considerable skills at the moment, and from the look in Murrue's eyes it was clear that she was well aware of that; she knew him far too well by now.

"Absolutely," she replied before leaning down to kiss him.

Their lips met, and their mouths opened to allow their tongues to commence that familiar and oh so welcome warm and wet dance. The small remnant of a wave washed up around them, but the cool water did nothing to deter the two lovers from their passionate lip locking.

All too soon they were forced to part for air, but Murrue did not yield her position over him. She smiled at him as her hair fell down around her, wet, wild and free.

"Look at you," she said, a fierce fire burning in her eyes, "The greatest of the Gundam pilots, the deadliest soldier that this world, _any _world, has ever seen… and you're _mine_. Mine, and mine alone."

Heero nodded and gave her a small smile in return. "And you… the best captain I've ever seen, the bravest officer in existence, and the most devoted commander a crew could ask for… and you gave yourself to _me_. I'm never letting go."

"Same here," said Murrue, "I don't care what this world or any other throws at us. _Nothing _is going to come between us. If there's a new war and we have to fight again, then so be it. The Alliance, ZAFT, and anyone else who tries to plunge our world into darkness will have to deal with both our might."

"Just like the last war," said Heero, "and just like then, we'll stop them all. I won't let them ravage our world and destroy the new life that we've built for each other. I'll fight them with everything I've got."

"As will I," Murrue replied, "We'll protect each other and this world. You, me, Kira, Lacus, the Waltfelds, the Bristows, and all of our friends and allies; we _will _defend this world and our future in it."

Before Heero could respond Murrue leaned down to kiss him again. Once again the Gundam pilot lost himself to her lips and tongue, savoring every second that he could get with this incredible woman.

When they once again parted for air she smiled down at him. "I love you, Heero Yuy."

Heero returned her smile. "And I love you, Murrue Ramius."

**End "Love Deterrence (MGSV Instrumental)"**

….

**October 11****th****, C.E. 73**

Standing out on the tarmac in the warm morning sun, Samuel Rodgrigues smiled as he drew his katana. The Hawaiian heat was amplified by the asphalt he was on, and as a result Jetstream Sam had forgone his shirt for the morning's exercise; he was dressed only in jeans and a pair of tennis shoes. Had there been any ladies around they no doubt would've appreciated the display of his athletic torso in the sun, but the Atlantic Federation's exclusion of women in all but a very select few cases from their armed forces in the years after the Bloody Valentine War robbed them of that chance. That was too bad as far as Sam was concerned; he didn't mind showing off for the opposite sex when the occasion was right.

The sword glistened in the morning sunlight. Carefully maintained and polished to a mirror sheen, it was a blade that Sam had possessed ever since his teen years. It was a family heirloom, one that he had taken up after his father's murder by a former student who had robbed the dojo for spare cash and shot him in the process. That former student hadn't long survived the crime; he had become Sam's first kill a few weeks later, and he had used this very sword to do it. This blade was far more than mere decoration. Even in this modern and mechanized world of mobile suits and advanced firearms, Sam had always kept it on him whenever he ventured onto the battlefield, and it had spilled plenty of blood in its time.

_And I'm sure it'll spill plenty more before my time is done_, he thought, _I certainly don't plan on retiring it anytime soon._

Raising the katana in a traditional kendo opening stance, he brought it down in a lightning fast strike. In the blink of an eye he brought the blade back up again in another slash, and with fluid grace and lethal speed he proceeded to run through a sequence of attacks. He'd trained so long with the sword that it was now harder to remember a time when he _hadn't _practiced with this particular blade. He could still use a wooden sword if he had to, but the hilt of his blade felt so much more natural in his hands now. A true swordsman made his blade into an extension of himself, and Sam had more than done that by now.

He grinned as he put himself on the back-foot, switching over to defense as he weaved a cocoon of blocks and parries around his body. There was a fierce energy to his movements even when he wasn't attacking; the thrill of wielding the blade always coursed through him once he got his exercises going.

The only thing that could beat it was the rush of actual combat.

He chuckled as he recalled the battle that had unfolded a mere three days ago. It hadn't mattered to him one bit that his actions in it had endangered the lives of countless people on Earth. All he cared about was that he had found an enemy that was truly worth fighting.

_Chang Wufei_, he thought with a smirk, _He's good…_

The pilot of the new green mobile suit was definitely superior to the one that he had faced off against at Armory One at any rate. True, the pilot of the Impulse had shown some promise, but he was green and too easily controlled by his emotions. Wufei was quite another matter. His skills and experience were genuine, and his mobile suit was clearly designed for close-quarters-combat. More importantly that that, though, was that Sam could tell just from their two clashes that his new adversary was a man who knew how to enjoy a good fight.

It was too bad that their battle three days ago couldn't have lasted longer, but Sam wasn't overly concerned. A new war was just around the corner, and he was sure that he would meet Wufei on the battlefield again soon enough. In the meantime he would have to keep his skills sharp; he couldn't let a brief period of leave on the surface go to his head.

Well, perhaps it didn't quite qualify as leave, but since he wasn't engaged on a battlefield he didn't really have anything better to call his reassignment to the surface. He had only just arrived at the Atlantic Federation's Pearl Harbor base the night before, along with his mobile suit. His orders were simply to remain there on standby until he was contacted again, which meant that until that moment came along he had to find a way to kill the time. Training with his sword would help him keep things from getting dull, but he hoped that this interlude between combat assignments did not last too long.

As he continued his exercises he was aware of someone approaching just outside his peripheral vision. Glancing to the side, he smirked as he saw who it was.

"I was wondering when they'd make you get off your ass," he said, "Or did you just miss me that much?"

The approaching man chuckled, more than a hint of an American southern drawl in his voice. "Real funny, Sam. I heard you got your ass kicked by some new guy up in space. You shouldn't go around embarrassing us like that."

"The only embarrassment I see is your ugly mug," Sam replied without missing a beat, "Not even your mother could love your face, Sundowner."

Wearing the back and red uniform that was customary to the elites of Desperado Enforcement LLC., Sundowner cut an imposing figure. Tall and bulky, he was one of the Winds of Destruction, a captain in the mercenary organization and part of its top elite. Sam didn't know his real name, and he didn't care one way or the other. As his accent suggested, the bald and grey-eyed pilot hailed from what had been considered 'The South' of the former United States; more specifically, the Alabama region. He was actually the de facto field commander of Desperado, but Sam wasn't inclined to show him much deference or respect. To put it mildly, Sundowner was a dick, an assessment Sam knew was shared with both him and the other members of the Winds of Destruction. Still, he had skills and the company's CEO had designated him as the head of combat operations, so Sam and the others played along with him and his attitude. A particularly large handgun was holstered at his hip, and Sundowner was rather fond of flaunting it in front of civilians or Alliance regulars who were stuck with standard-issue sidearms.

Sundowner smirked. "Is that so? If your momma had been half the mother mine was she would've slapped that shit-eating-grin off your face a long time ago."

"Too bad she was such a softy," said Sam as he continued with his exercises, "She couldn't hurt a fly, let alone her only son."

"No shit," said Sundowner, "So what's this I hear about you facing off against the same asshole twice and not being able to kill him?"

"Not all of us can content ourselves with slaughtering two-bit militants who spend their spare time fucking little girls," Sam quipped as he went through a series of diagonal slashes, "Some of us actually seek out people who can put up a decent fight."

Sundowner chuckled. "Finally found an enemy that can give you a good workout, eh? You got a hard-on for this guy after only two fights?"

"Why don't you try fighting him or one of his friends?" said Sam casually, "If you survive the experience you might actually enjoy yourself."

Sundowner laughed, but the look in his eyes was not one of humor. "Maybe. So the big cheese from the last war is back, and he's brought some new friends with him… I even heard he upgraded his precious Wing Zero."

"So it seems," Sam replied, "Not that I got the chance to face off with him directly, but from what I saw it looks like Heero Yuy lives up to the hype. His new friends are no joke either."

"Good," said Sundowner, "This new war would be boring otherwise if all we got to do was cut down ZAFT's children."

Sam smirked as he recalled the Impulse's pilot. "Some of those children have potential. If they survive long enough they might actually be able to give you a run for your money."

Sundowner folded his arms. "Pretty big 'if' there."

"They did well enough in the orbital battle," said Sam as he went through a series of stabs and cuts.

Sundowner chuckled. "Only because those high-and-mighty _saints _from the last war showed up to save their hides. Defectors and traitors, the lot of them."

"They might have abandoned their countries," said Sam, "but not their fighting skills. They're some of the sharpest players on this field of ours."

"About the only thing they got going for them," Sundowner sneered, "That and some big guns."

Sam laughed. "You sound jealous."

Sundowner glowered at him. "Please. If they think that they can pull the same crap that they did in the last war this time then they're deluded. That shit's not gonna fly this time. Not if we have anything to say about it."

Sam's eyes narrowed at the word 'we'. "You didn't come here alone, did you? Who all did you fly in with?"

Sundowner smiled. "Oh, just a small crowd. The other Winds and a few support specialists for the new mobile suits. We actually just landed about an hour ago. Why didn't you come out to greet your comrades?"

"Funny," said Sam, "You never struck me as the type to get worked up about that. You're not exactly sentimental, Sundowner."

"Aw, now that just _hurts_," said Sundowner, without the slightest hint of pain in his voice, "You should know that I'm a _very _sentimental man, Sam. In fact, I'd say this coming war's gonna put tears of joy in my eyes."

"And money in your pockets," said Sam as he switched over to a sequence of up and down slashes.

"Yours too," Sundowner shot back, "Don't forget that you're a dog of war just like the rest of us. Besides, you don't need to hide it; you're about as excited for the fireworks as I am, aren't you?"

Sam smiled. "Maybe. If who I fought up in orbit is any indication, it looks like there'll actually be people worth fighting when the show starts."

Sundowner laughed. "Now that's more like it! Get yourself nice and worked up for the fight like I am. Dream of your blade cutting down those fools that preach peace and coexistence! It'll make it all the sweeter when we finally taste blood again."

"Just as long as it's not your own that you're tasting, boys," said a female voice with more than a hint of a French accent.

"Sooner or later we all taste that blood, one way or another," said a male voice, this one also familiar if lacking the French accent of the woman, "That's just nature running its course. It's kill or be killed. Always has been, and always will."

_Well, now_, thought Sam as he lowered his sword and faced the new arrivals, _it looks like the gang's all here._

Standing before him were the remaining two Winds of Destruction, Mistral and Monsoon. Both of their real names were a mystery to Sam, and he had no intention of finding out what they really were. All he cared about was their fighting prowess, and that they both had in abundance.

The two Winds were wearing their Desperado uniforms, but that was about the only thing that they had in common. The woman with the French accent was Mistral, and despite that accent she was actually only half French. She hailed from the North African region once known as Algeria, a land that had once been a colony of France long ago. Her codename was derived from the dry northern winds that blew down from the Alps into the Mediterranean. In her mid-twenties, there was no denying that Mistral was a beautiful woman. The way her long pink hair fell covered the left side of her face, shielding half of her pair of piercing blue eyes. Her skin was an exotic dark tan, testament to her North African heritage. Her athletic figure, with curves in all the right places, would be the envy of any model walking the Paris runway, but Sam knew all too well that Mistral was not the type of girl to be preoccupied by such mundane things as fashion. Unlike Sundowner, the gun strapped to Mistral's side was smaller and more streamlined, a much more practical weapon that Sam knew from experience that the woman was absolutely lethal with, along with the knife that she kept concealed inside her right boot.

In some respects, Mistral was a kindred spirit to Sam. She enjoyed herself on the battlefield, and she had once remarked to him that combat made her feel truly alive. He had certainly believed her when she'd said that; the joy that she derived from fighting was quite clear on the comms whenever they operated together. However, while she might've enjoyed a clash with a skilled opponent she also seemed equally pleased with wading through a horde of weaklings and drowning them in their own blood. Sam also felt that she was looking for something a bit different than him on the battlefield. While Minuano desired an opponent who could push him to his limit, Mistral appeared to be searching for a distinct cause of some sort to believe in. It was rather unusual for someone who was part of the mercenary business to be preoccupied with ideals, but Mistral had been wandering more and more in that direction as of late. Sam didn't know what to make of it, and in the end he supposed that it didn't matter; as long as her skills remained sharp and she continued fighting as part of their group then that was all he really cared about.

In many ways, Mistral's fellow Desperado captain was a sharp contrast to her. For starters, Monsoon was a good deal older than her. In fact, Sam wasn't sure if he was in his late thirties, early forties, or potentially even approaching fifty. Matters weren't helped by the large, crimson shell-like device that covered his upper head and most of his face, with the exception of his lower nose, his mouth and chin. The device was actually a cybernetic visual aid that had restored his sight after he had been blinded in a particularly gruesome close-quarters gang brawl in his past. Sam knew that the man's ethnicity was Khmer, but an outside observer would've had trouble figuring that out with the white hair and prominent mechanical shell obscuring his face. Like the other Desperado captains he had a pistol holstered at his side, but on each hip was also sheathed a more exotic weapon; a set of Sai.

Like Mistral, Monsoon was a killer who eagerly waded into the thick of the fighting. However, his outlook on battle was significantly different than the French-Algerian's. While Mistral increasingly saw the battlefield as a place where she could search for a cause truly worth fighting for, Monsoon regarded it with a much more Darwinian perspective. War, as Sam had heard him put it, was the ultimate expression of nature's survival-of-the-fittest. It was where mankind finally revealed its true nature, where the strong devoured the weak until they themselves were devoured by someone stronger. When in combat, Monsoon saw himself as fulfilling a natural purpose by slaughtering anyone who wasn't strong enough to stand against him. It was fine if a foe could put up a decent fight, but finding a worthy adversary wasn't particularly high on Monsoon's priority list.

"That's really pretty," said Sundowner with a sneer, "You gonna start waxing poetically on us all, Monsoon?"

Monsoon shrugged. "Make light of the natural order if you wish, Sundowner. Not even you are immune to it."

"Do you have to reduce it to something so bland?" said Mistral, "Those who fight according to their own beliefs are more than simply animals ripping each other apart in the wild."

Monsoon smirked. "What good are beliefs when they're not strong enough to uphold them in combat? Anyone can try to be noble and fight for a greater cause, but all that means nothing when they fall victim to the rules of nature."

Sundowner rolled his eyes as he glanced over at Sam. "They were like this the whole flight over here."

"My sympathies," he replied half-heartedly.

"So," said Mistral, her eyes narrowing as she looked at Sam, "I heard that you found some new enemies."

"Including one that can give you a run for your money," said Monsoon with a smile, "That's promising."

Sam nodded as he sheathed his sword. "I'd say so."

"What do you know about them?" asked Mistral.

Sam shrugged. "Beyond the fact that they're good and that their mobile suits appear to be spinoffs of Wing Zero, not much."

Sundowner scoffed. "That figures. And here I was hoping you'd be able to give us some real intel."

"You have the Ronin's combat recordings," Sam shot back, "That should give you plenty of information."

"But information that focuses on the one that _you _fought," said Monsoon, "Valuable to be sure, but it's too narrow a picture."

"The one that you fought," said Mistral, "what was he like?"

"The combat data showed that you did speak to him," Monsoon added.

Sam nodded. "That I did. If you listened to that then you should be able to form your own conclusions about him."

"But they would not be valid," said Mistral, "because we did not fight him. _You _crossed swords with this 'Chang Wufei' and lived to tell the tale. Is he merely a highly skilled warrior, or is he something more?"

Sam chuckled and shook his head. "If you're asking me what he's fighting for then I think you're going to be disappointed. I don't think he's chasing those illusive ideals that you are, Mistral."

Mistral looked disappointed. "So he's just another samurai looking for his worthy adversary? Sounds like you found your dream foe."

Sam shrugged apologetically. "Hey, that's just the feeling I get from him. For what it's worth, I can only speak for him since I fought him. There are four others, including Heero Yuy. I bet one of them will be more to your liking."

Mistral smiled. "Ah, yes, the Angel of Ruin… and now his mobile suit matches the name with those new wings. Now _he _would be a man worth fighting."

Monsoon smirked. "The apex predator of the last war… and it looks like he's kept his fangs sharp. The blood of the weak will flow in rivers from his blade once this war gets going. He's the embodiment of nature's rule on the battlefield."

Sundowner sneered. "Heh. 'Apex predator' my ass… he just got lucky that he never ran into me during the last war. He's good, but this time we'll put him six feet under where he belongs."

Sam smirked. "Careful there, big guy. Azrael underestimated Heero Yuy in the last war, and he wound up with a knife through his heart."

Sundowner laughed. "That's because Azrael was nothing more than a pansy politician. He couldn't win a fight against a dog, let alone a soldier. Once his flagship was stormed he was as good as dead. All the cannon fodder he'd packed onboard the _Dominion _didn't do him two shits worth of good. In the end it all comes down to your own strength."

"Yes," said Monsoon, "Azrael had a powerful army, but all his soldiers and mobile suits couldn't save him from a superior predator. He was weaker than his lowliest grunts; he got what he deserved."

_Really?_, Sam mused, _He deserved to die only because he was weak and not because he was a raving psychopath and mass murderer? I do wonder at how Monsoon's head works sometimes…_

Mistral shook her head. "The man was a pig. He was out for his own power and nothing more. His beliefs were nothing but a pile of shit. No wonder he got butchered."

"Now, now," said Sundowner with a smirk, "At least he got one thing right. He helped start one hell of a war. Mankind should thank him for that."

"I'm sure everyone who died is _very _grateful," said Sam with a smirk.

"Hey," said Sundowner, "it was thanks to that war and what happened after that our company was able to form. All those official force downsizings put a lot of soldiers out of jobs. Groups like ours give those proud men a purpose!"

"And you an excuse to kill again," said Mistral dismissively.

"You too, princess," Sundowner shot back.

_All of us_, Sam mused, _Our philosophies and outlooks may be different, but if the four of us have one thing in common it's that we're all dogs of war. War is not just how we make a living; it's what makes us feel truly alive. We're all a bunch of killers…_

_ …and we wouldn't have it any other way._

….

**October 15****th****, C.E. 73**

Standing in the bathroom holding up two dresses in front of the mirror, Lan's brow furrowed in frustration. "Argh, damn it! I can't make up my mind!"

_When was the last time _this _happened?_, she thought, _Ah, Quatre… you come rolling into town in your badass Gundam and I turn into a schoolgirl._

Lan shook her head. No, she was supposed to be the one that was controlling events. _She _was the one that was taking the lead when it came to her and the cute blond pilot who had saved her life in the battle a week ago. It was _she _who had brought things to this point.

_Does it really matter?_, she mused, _I mean, he seemed to like that blouse and skirt I wore the other day when I showed him around town. He wasn't exactly complaining about my workout outfit the day before, either… I bet he'd be happy with either of these. Ah, what am I thinking? _Of course _it matters which one I wear!_

True to her word, Lan had given Quatre a bit of space after the party. However, only a couple of days had gone by before she'd succumbed to the urge to call him and ask if he'd wanted to hang out. Much to her relief he'd said 'yes' without a hint of hesitation, and Lan had wasted no time in hauling ass over to the estate.

The first day she'd spent with him had been simply her taking him out into the main city and showing him the sights. They'd hit the mall, checked out the park, went to the big seafood market, played at the arcade for a while, and just generally had a blast and forgotten about everything else in the world. For their next encounter Lan had decided on a more personal setting, so she'd convinced Quatre to exercise with her in the facilities that Terminal's estate had to offer. She'd been suitably impressed with the young man to say the least. Lan had already been well aware of his piloting skills, but his physical prowess was nothing to sneeze at either. Despite being a Natural he'd done a pretty good job with keeping pace with her, whether it was in the weight room or on the basketball court.

_Those were some pretty fun times_, she thought as she studied herself and the two dresses in the mirror again, _but they were also just practice runs as far as I'm concerned. Tonight's the big night! Full-court press, blitz in the fourth quarter… I gotta go all out!_

Deciding that she needed a little help, she left the bathroom and went to the apartment's living room, where both Adaline and Priscilla were going at it in old school _Street Fighter_. "Hey, Pris? Adaline? Can you two pause that and give me a hand?"

Her two friends looked over at her. When they saw what she was holding they turned and nodded at each other before stopping their game.

"So you're really going through with this, aren't you?" asked Adaline.

"You know," said Priscilla, "you're not meeting him for another four hours. Do you really need our help with this?"

"Yes," said Lan, a bit exasperated, "If I didn't need your help then I wouldn't be asking for it!"

"Lan," said Adaline, "are you okay?"

"You seem a bit… worked up," said Priscilla.

Lan blinked. "Worked up? _Me_? Come on, you two know me better than that."

"We _do _know you," said Adaline, and Lan was a bit taken aback by how serious she had become, "and we're worried."

Lan raised an eyebrow. "Worried? Why?"

Priscilla sighed. "Come on, Lan. Don't make this harder than it has to be."

Lan shook her head. "Pris, I seriously don't have a clue what you two are talking about. All I want is a little help figuring out which dress to wear for when I see Quatre. What's wrong with that?"

"Don't play dumb, Lan," said Adaline, "We all know what tomorrow is."

"I don't care about tomorrow," said Lan, her tone becoming way more defensive than she had meant it to, "All I care about right now is tonight."

"You care about tonight _because _of what tomorrow is," said Priscilla, her eyes narrowing, "Lan, those dresses… they aren't exactly what you'd call modest."

Lan held up the red and black dress. "So what if they're a little risqué? They're not see-through or anything like that."

"They still show plenty of skin," said Adaline.

"Yeah?" Lan shot back, "Well, it's not like I'm one to shy away from that. I work hard on maintaining my body; I've got the right to show it off a bit."

"No one's arguing that," said Priscilla, "and if this were any other night we wouldn't be giving you a hard time about it."

"But it's _not _any other night," said Adaline, "and you damn well know it's not."

Lan sighed; she knew they were both right on the money, however reluctant she was to admit it. "Look, you don't need to remind me. I'm the last person who would forget that, believe me. So what's wrong with me cutting loose for a little while? I think it's natural, especially with that hanging over my head."

"And normally we'd say have at it," said Priscilla, "We're all for you trying to relax and keep your mind off of what happened, but you're going for more than that."

"How so?" asked Lan.

"Those dresses are a big hint right there," said Adaline dryly, "No matter which one you go with you're going to be showing off a lot more than just a little bit of leg."

"And you're going to be showing off for the guy that saved your life," Priscilla added, "A guy that you made a beeline for the instant we showed up at the estate for the party."

"A guy that we both know you haven't been able to keep out of your head for a second since he arrived on the scene," Adaline stated.

Lan forced a smile. "Well, can you blame me? There aren't a whole lot of guys out there like Quatre. You sure you're just not jealous because _I _made a move before either of you two could?"

"Making a move _is the problem_," said Adaline firmly, "Lan, it was nice and all that you gave him some space after the party, and time you've spent with him since then has been a good way for you two to get to know each other better…"

"There's a 'but' there," said Lan, "I can always tell when a 'but' is about to appear."

Priscilla nodded. "The 'but' is that you're moving way too fast with this, Lan. Tonight's not just about taking him out for drinks and some dancing."

"What else would it be about?" asked Lan, her eyes narrowing.

Adaline rolled her eyes. "Lan, stop trying to hide it. Anyone with half a brain can tell what you're planning."

"It's a bad idea," said Priscilla, "At least when you're like this. Maybe after the anniversary's past and you're thinking clearly… can't you wait a little longer? It's not like he's leaving right away."

"Wait for what?" asked Lan, her voice getting a little sharper than she meant it to, "Just get to the damn point already!"

"You're looking for a distraction," said Priscilla, "A pretty big one, too."

It Priscilla was cryptic, Adaline was brutally honest. "You're going to grief-bang him, aren't you?"

Lan had to take a step back at that. "What? _Grief-bang _him? What the hell, Adaline?"

"Don't play the indignation card with me," said Adaline, her voice surprisingly stern, "Instead of trying to deal with your pain like a mature adult you're looking to jump into bed with a guy you just met a week ago."

Lan shook her head. "Adaline, I know that I like to have a bit of fun when it comes to boys, but you're going _way _too far here."

"I don't think she is," said Priscilla, "With the way you've been after him since the fight and your feelings about what tomorrow is, I think she's perfectly within her right to come to that conclusion. I happen to agree with her."

Lan's eyes widened at that. "You serious? Pris, what the hell?"

"Don't 'what the hell' her or me," said Adaline, taking a step forward, "Lan, this isn't the way to deal with your problems. If you were just looking for some company from Quatre, someone to talk to, then I'd say that it would be good for you, but we all know that's not what you have in mind."

"You're planning on getting him alone and on his back at the first chance you have," said Priscilla, "Lan, _please _tell me you haven't booked a room for this already."

Lan shook her head. "Jesus fucking Christ, Pris… no, I haven't. I promise."

Her blonde friend sighed in relief. "Thank goodness."

"So where do you plan on taking him after the club?" asked Adaline, giving her an uncomfortably piercing look.

Lan shrugged. "I figured I'd play that by ear. I hadn't really planned past the club."

"Are you _sure_?" asked Priscilla.

"For the last time," said Lan, more than a little exasperated at this point, "I don't plan to 'grief-bang' Quatre! There, happy?"

Adaline sighed. "I suppose it will have to do."

"We really couldn't stop you if you wanted to," said Priscilla, "but even so… Lan, _please _don't do it."

Lan shrugged. "Whatever. Look, can you two just help me pick between one of these two dresses already?"

"You're not going to go with something else?" asked Adaline.

"Nope," said Lan, "My mind's set on one or the other; no middle ground, no alternatives."

"If that's the case," said Priscilla, her eyes narrowing in thought, "then… I have to go with the black one."

Adaline nodded. "Yeah, I'm with her. It goes perfectly with your hair."

Lan smiled. "Thank you. Was that really so hard?"

"Don't think that we're letting you off the hook that easily," said Adaline, "Pris and I will both be here tonight, so if you bring Quatre back here for a romp in your room we're both going to chew you out for it in the morning."

"And we'll bring in Shemei too," said Priscilla firmly, "I know she's cut you some slack in the past, but I'm pretty sure that she'd side with us here."

Lan shook her head. "Man, you two are just brutal today, aren't you? All right, I promise that I won't bring Quatre back here tonight. Are we good now?"

Priscilla sighed. "I guess so. Have fun tonight, Lan."

"But not too much, right?" Lan quipped.

"You know what she meant," said Adaline, shaking her head, "Come on, Pris."

As the two of them went back to their game Lan shook her head before heading to her room and putting the red dress back in the closet. She then went into the bathroom carrying the black dress and shut the door behind her.

_That was _way _more of a hassle than it had to be_, she thought as she held up the dress in front of her while she looked in the mirror, _I mean, seriously… if I didn't know those two better I'd almost say that they actually _are _jealous. 'Grief-bang'… never thought I'd hear Adaline_ _say something like that._

She could act as indignantly as she liked, but a small part of her mind was keenly aware that the words of her friends had struck a nerve with her. They were a bit too close to home for Lan's liking, especially considering that her thoughts on where tonight could go weren't entirely suitable for family viewing.

The truth was that Lan _was _looking for a distraction, and felt that she could find it in Quatre. It wasn't just because he was a cute guy or because he had mad piloting skills. She'd only had a week to get to know him, but from that first night at the party she'd already gotten a pretty strong impression of him. He was a genuinely nice guy, someone who was sincere and compassionate. Lan might've thought of herself as a bit of a 'bad girl', but she could definitely go for a good guy if the right one crossed her path, and Quatre seemed to fit the bill.

In the brief amount of time that they'd spent together, Quatre had shown himself to be not just kind but also intelligent, insightful, and he even had a gentle sense of humor. Sure, he could play the bashful type, but to Lan that just made him even more fun to be around. She could tease him and get a genuine blush out of him; he wasn't just playing along in the hopes that she might do more than simply flirt.

_I want to be with someone tonight_, she thought, _and not just any guy. Adaline and Pris are wrong; I'm not just looking for a hookup here. I want to be with someone that I can truly relax and be myself with. I want someone I can trust, someone who'll treat me seriously and let me have my fun. Quatre's that guy. He doesn't know what tomorrow means for me, but I can share that with him eventually. Tonight's a night for me to have a good time, and I want that good time to be with Quatre. If it goes further than just drinks and dancing, I'm not going to complain… and I only promised the others that I hadn't booked a room and that I wouldn't bring him back here._

_ I've still got an option open._

Lan smiled as she looked at herself in the mirror. Posing with a hand on her hip, she held up the dress again and winked.

"Watch out, Quatre," she said softly, "I'm on the hunt, and I'm after _you_!"

….

"Hey!" said Duo, "Looks like someone's trying to look sharp tonight!"

Quatre sighed as he combed back his hair, studying his reflection in the mirror carefully. "Duo, not now."

"Not now what?" he said as he leaned against the bathroom doorway, a confident smirk on his face, "You can't hide it from me, buddy. So, what's the big plan?"

Quatre knew that there was no point in hiding it any longer. "If you _have _to know… I'm seeing someone tonight."

Duo grinned. "Hah! Someone's got a date! Let me guess; that pretty little Chinese minx, right?"

"That 'minx' has a name," said Quatre, "and it's Lan Zhao."

Quatre didn't think it was possible for Duo's smile to get any further, but the Gundam pilot from L2 quickly proved him wrong. "Wow! Way to go, Quatre! I always knew that there was a lady-killer buried beneath all that shyness. So that's why you're dressed to the nines."

Quatre wouldn't exactly his current attire to make him 'dressed to the nines', as Duo put it, but it was certainly a step or two above his casual wear. When he'd packed for the mission to find Heero Quatre'd naturally had no way to know what sort of situation he and his friends would be flying into. He'd done his best to prepare for any eventuality, and that prep work had gone right down to his wardrobe. The black dress pants and shoes and the white button up shirt he was wearing was what he considered to be respectable, semi-formal attire, and based on what Lan had told him over the phone it seemed to be appropriate for tonight's date.

_A date_, he thought, more than a bit nervous at the prospect, _Is that really what this is?_

Looking at things objectively, it was hard to see it as anything else. That took Quatre considerably off guard; he hadn't come to the Cosmic Era to chase girls. Still, there was something about Lan that actually made him a little excited about the prospect.

Quatre would freely admit that Lan was a very attractive woman, but he wasn't the type to involve himself with a girl based solely on physical appearance. Lan had shown herself to have far more than just good looks to bring to the table. She was quick-witted and good humored, a skilled pilot, and a very welcoming person in a situation where Quatre and his friends had definitely needed some good will. The Cosmic Era might still have Earth and space colonies, but despite all the similar features to the After Colony world that still did not change the fact that Quatre and the others were about as far from familiar territory as they could get. They were fortunate that Heero had made so many new friends and allies during his time here, and Quatre was grateful that one of them was Lan.

Quatre could not deny that he was generally interested in the Chinese Coordinator. The way she had approached him at the party and flirted with him had taken him quite off guard, but it wasn't an unpleasant feeling. For Quatre it was new turf, and a girl like Lan was quite different from his sisters or any other woman that he had met before. While the two of them had spoken at length both at the party and their subsequent encounters Quatre was sure that there was still much more to her than what he had experienced so far. He was curious to find out what else was beneath that rather lovely exterior of hers.

_If nothing else_, he thought, unable to completely suppress a smile, _she seems to be a really fun person. We're not going home anytime soon, so I see nothing wrong with hanging out with her and getting to know her more. My sisters were always telling me to get out more and 'let my hair down', as they put it… tonight might be a good opportunity to do that._

Unfortunately for him, his smile did not go unnoticed by his friend. Duo had a knowing smirk on his face, and Quatre doubted that it would go away anytime soon.

"So," said the L2 native, "where are you two meeting?"

"She's picking me up here," Quatre replied.

"Nice!" said Duo, "What time?"

"I think she's supposed to be here in a few minutes," said Quatre.

"Cutting it pretty close then, aren't you?" said Duo.

Quatre shook his head. "I'm fine. It doesn't take me that long to clean up, after all."

Duo nodded. "That's good. So, need any words of wisdom before your girl gets here?"

Quatre sighed. "Do I have a choice in the matter?"

Duo laughed. "Maybe, maybe not. Depends on what you're looking for!"

"Duo," said Quatre, "Lan was the one that extended the invitation. I'm just going along for the ride."

Duo shook his head. "It's more than that, buddy. Just the fact that you're dressed like this means it's not a casual hangout. I think that girl wants something more out of this. The real question is; do you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," said Quatre.

Duo chuckled. "I think you do. The girl came right at you at the party, and I think you liked that. She's flirty and fun; don't both denying it. The fact that you saw her again this week and are going out with her tonight tells me that you want some more of what she's got to offer."

Quatre shook his head. "You know, if Hilde could hear you right now she'd probably have some choice words for you."

Duo smirked. "Sure, but she's not here right now, is she?"

"Unfortunately for me, no," Quatre deadpanned.

"That's right!" said Duo triumphantly.

Checking himself over in the mirror, Quatre then turned to Duo. "I don't have time for this. She's going to be here any minute now, Duo."

Duo held up his hands. "Relax, buddy. I don't plan on holding you up."

"Then what _are _you planning?" asked Quatre.

"Just to drop a bit of advice," said Duo with a wink, "and I'll keep it short and sweet, okay?"

Quatre nodded. "All right."

"Go with the flow," said Duo, "and don't over think things."

Quatre blinked. "That's it?"

Duo smiled. "Hey, I said I'd keep it short, didn't I? I don't believe in overcomplicating things."

"That's an understatement," Quatre replied.

Duo punched Quatre on the shoulder. "Relax, pal. You'll be fine! Loosen up and enjoy yourself, okay?"

Quatre smiled and shook his head. "Whatever you say, Duo."

"He's right," said a female voice, "Just be yourself, Quatre. Lan wouldn't want it any other way.

The two of them turned to see Shemei standing in the hallway. Her arms were folded, and she had a knowing smile on her face.

"You all set?" she asked.

Quatre nodded. "I think so."

"Good," said Shemei, "because Lan just got here. I told her to wait downstairs while I grabbed you."

_That was fast_, Quatre thought, _Well, here goes nothing._

Duo grinned. "Well, time for me to make myself scarce. Later, buddy! Let me know how it goes!"

The L2 native walked off, leaving Quatre alone with the Valkyrie. He saw her smirk and shake her head as she watched him leave.

"What a card," she said, "He's lucky my girls were able to spot that ring on his finger. Otherwise they'd be all over him."

Quatre nodded and smiled. "He'd probably enjoy that, but despite how he seems Duo isn't the type to cheat. He and Hilde can drive each other crazy sometimes, but they really do love each other."

"Glad to hear that," said Shemei, "It must be tough on him to be separated from her to this extent."

"Yeah," said Quatre, "but Duo'll be fine, and so will Hilde. He'll get back to her one way or another, and she'll wait for him."

"I'm sure he will," Shemei replied.

"Speaking of waiting ladies," said Quatre, "I'd better get down to Lan."

He started moving forward, but he was taken off guard when Shemei put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "In a minute, Quatre."

Quatre was puzzled. "What is it?"

"It's about Lan," said Shemei, and Quatre was surprised to see that she looked quite serious, "I need a favor from you."

Quatre nodded. "What would that be?"

"Lan hides it pretty well from those who aren't too familiar with her," said Shemei, "but… well, believe it or not, she's going through quite a bit right now."

"What do you mean?" asked Quatre.

Shemei shook her head. "If Lan hasn't told you herself then it's not my place to say. At the rate she's going, though, I wouldn't be surprised if she brings it up with you at some point. Regardless, when she does that is her call, not mine."

Quatre nodded, not sure what was going on but not knowing how else to reply. "Okay. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to do this favor of yours though if I don't know what's going on."

Shemei smiled. "It's not that hard, but it would mean the world to me. I admit that I don't know you too well, but from the impression I've gotten so far I think you're the kind of guy that can do this."

"And that would be?" asked Quatre.

"Take care of her," said Shemei.

"She seems like she can take care of herself," Quatre replied.

Shemei chuckled and shook her head. "I know she can, but that's not quite what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?" asked Quatre.

"Let her have her fun tonight," said Shemei, "and join her in it. However, I want you to be there for her for when she needs you. Trust me; she'll never admit it, but what she really wants is someone to talk to about what's going on with her. It can't be me or the other girls, though; we've been trying pretty hard lately, but she won't let us close. You, though… I think you're the one that can make the breakthrough."

"I appreciate that vote of confidence," said Quatre, "but it would really help if you could clue me in as to what I'm supposed to let her talk to me about."

"Sorry," Shemei replied, "Like I told you before, that's not for me to say. Just be ready for when the time comes. Also, try to keep her from going overboard, especially with the booze. It's fine for her to knock back a few drinks, but with what she's carrying around inside there's definitely a chance that she could take it too far."

Quatre nodded. "I'll do my best."

Shemei smiled. "Good. That's all I can ask."

"Anything else?" asked Quatre.

Shemei shook her head and smirked. "Nope. Go get her, tiger!"

Quatre smiled, hoping he looked more confident than he felt. Shemei might've been trying to prepare him for whatever Lan was keeping bottled up inside her, but the fact that she hadn't really given him any details didn't do Quatre much good. All he could do now was move forward and play things by ear.

_Improvise as I go_, he mused as he headed for the stairs, _That's the Gundam pilot way to handle things… although I've never tried it with a girl before._

This was completely unknown territory for him. However, while Quatre wouldn't deny being nervous, there was also more than a little bit of excitement running through him at the moment. One way or another, tonight promised to be a unique experience, and he wanted to make the most of it.

As he came to the top of the stairs he heard a whistle come from below, followed by a familiar female voice. "Damn… if I'd known that you cleaned up this nicely I would've set this thing up a lot sooner!"

_And I would've let you_, thought Quatre as he looked at her, _if I'd known that you'd be like this…_

She wore a dress that was as black as her hair, one that provided a stark contrast to her light skin. It also showed off quite a bit of that skin; the shoulder straps were so small that they were nearly invisible, and if the hem went up any higher then it would almost defeat the purpose of wearing a dress in the first place. Her arms and shoulders, her legs and thighs… the way the dress exposed them was beyond tantalizing, and Quatre could feel his heartbeat quicken considerably. Black dress slippers adorned her feet, while her raven hair flowed freely and had an alluring luster to it. A small black purse was held in her left hand, capping off the midnight ensemble. She was an absolute vision; any other girl that Quatre had seen before absolutely paled before the display that Lan was giving him now.

She grinned at him as he stood there staring, a playful glint in her dark brown eyes. "What's the matter, flyboy? Cat got your tongue?"

Quatre couldn't help but smile as he started down the stairs. "Wow… you look incredible!"

It was a _major _understatement, but the normally charismatic Gundam pilot truly was at a loss for more eloquent words at the moment. Still, he was relieved to see that his rather meager reply had an effect on her; Quatre could spot just a hint of red on her face.

"Thanks," she said, batting her eyelids at him, "I thought tonight deserved a little extra effort, and I'm more than happy to put the work in if it's for a guy like you!"

"I'm flattered," said Quatre as he came to the bottom of the stairs, "and quite honored."

She winked at him as she stepped forward, raising her hand to his right cheek before running it slowly down his face and neck before stopping at the collar. "You should be, Desert Prince."

Quatre smiled at her use of his unofficial call sign; he'd shared it with her during the party a week ago. "You remembered. It's too bad that I don't have a similar name to use for you."

"Give it time, cutie," said Lan as she reached down and took hold of his hand, "The night's young; I'm sure you can think of a fitting call sign for me before it's over. In fact, I think you have to, now."

"No promises," Quatre replied.

Lan smirked. "Don't think that I'll let you off the hook just because you've got good looks and a badass mobile suit."

"I wouldn't dream of it," said Quatre.

"Good," said Lan before nodding at the door, "Shall we?"

"Ladies first," said Quatre.

She smiled as she took lead, gently pulling him out the front door and towards the black sedan that was parked off to the side of the driveway. It was in excellent condition and appeared to be either government or corporate issue.

"That's yours?" asked Quatre.

"Wouldn't be driving it otherwise," said Lan with a smirk, "Call it one of the perks you get when you help save the world. The Alliance and ZAFT might not have thought too highly of our efforts, but the Orb government was another matter."

"The Orb government?" said Quatre with knowing smile, "Or Morgenroete?"

Lan laughed as she reached into her purse and pulled out a key. "Can't get much past you, can I? Okay, it was a combo of Cagalli and Erica. She told her to use the Morgenroete funds that had been set aside for us to make sure we could live comfortably; our modest hero's reward, as it were. As long as they didn't stand out in a crowd Erica had free reign to set us up however she wanted to. This baby's mine, and Adaline and Pris have their own cars as well. We actually don't drive separately that often though; most of the time we go as a group, so it's typically easier to use a single car."

"It's nice," said Quatre as she unlocked it.

"Thanks," she replied, "but you can't fool me; this baby's nothing compared to what you got back home, right? Don't lie, mister 'I-have-my-own-company'; how big are the limos you ride around in?"

Quatre had to laugh. "Hey, they're normal sized limos! A lot of the time I don't even use those. The company's got a fleet of town cars, and I'm quite happy with them. The limo only gets used when I have a lot of company or have a big meeting and need to make an impression."

"So," said Lan, smiling as she opened her door while looking at him, "if things were reversed and we were back in your world, would a girl like me rate one of your town cars or the limo treatment?"

"Definitely the limo," Quatre replied without missing a beat.

Lan grinned. "Good answer, flyboy! Now come on; get in."

As soon as he got in the car and closed the door Lan turned the key and the engine purred to life. Looking over at her, Quatre saw that she was still smiling; clearly she was excited about tonight.

"So," he said, "what's the name of this place you're taking me?"

"It's called _Purgatorio_," Lan replied as she started driving the car down the driveway, "Pretty new club in the downtown entertainment district."

"Have you been there before?" asked Quatre.

Lan nodded. "Scoped out the place with Adaline and Pris a few months back when it first opened. Good vibes, great beats, a kickass DJ, and mean drinks. You'll like it!"

Quatre smiled. "I'm sure I will."

She glanced over at him and smirked as she turned out onto the main road. "You look nervous. What's the matter? Don't know your way around a night club?"

Quatre's smile became a bit sheepish. "Well…"

Lan's eyes widened, but to Quatre's relief she didn't look worried. Far from it; she was absolutely grinning again.

"Wow," she said, her eyes all but glowing with eagerness, "I hit the nail right on the head, didn't I? Well, you'd better brace yourself, cutie! You're about to get a crash course in the nightlife scene!"

"Just as long as we don't get caught up in anything... shady," said Quatre.

"Relax," Lan replied, "This place is as legit as you get. Well, mostly. I'm pretty sure the owner rents out extra bouncers from a local gang, but they don't give the patrons trouble unless some jerkoff's asking for it. They're not gonna do anything that'll risk hurting the place's reputation and bottom line. Scaring people off is bad for business, after all, and the staff behaves themselves."

"Good to know," said Quatre.

"Besides," said Lan with a smile, "the bartender makes an awesome Strawberry Sunrise."

"What's that?" asked Quatre.

Lan's eyes widened again. "Oh, you poor boy… you mean you've never heard of a Strawberry Sunrise? Does your world even _have _those?"

"If it does, I've never encountered one," Quatre replied.

"Well, then," said Lan, "We're going to have to fix that tonight!"

Quatre nodded. "Sounds good."

Looking out the window, Quatre saw that the sun was just about gone. Turning back to Lan, Quatre became a bit concerned.

"Aren't you going to be cold?" he asked, "That dress is nice, but it doesn't look like it'll keep you warm."

"I'll be fine," Lan replied, "The nights in Orb this time of year are actually fairly warm. That's sweet of you to worry like that, though. Thanks."

Quatre smiled. "Anytime."

It wasn't long before the lights of the city were visible on the horizon, and they grew closer with each passing second. The traffic was fairly light, so they were able to make excellent time as they drove towards the downtown area.

"I usually just do this sort of thing with the girls," said Lan, smiling at him, "It's nice to have a boy come along for a change."

"Well," said Quatre, "It's a new experience for me, and you did say that you'd show me where the local hotspots are."

Lan laughed. "That I did!"

"Speaking of your friends," said Quatre, "what are they up to tonight?"

Lan shrugged. "Adaline and Pris are taking a night in. They're hanging out at the apartment."

"They didn't want to come along?" he asked.

"They might've," said Lan with a wink, "but I want you all to myself tonight!"

It was impossible for Quatre to miss the gleam in her eye. It looked downright predatory, and not for the first time Quatre found himself wondering just what he'd gotten himself into by agreeing to this.

_Too late to back out now_, he thought, _I'll have to see it through to wherever it might lead._

Now they were well within the city limits. Skyscrapers rose up around them, the blare of car horns and the dull roar of crowds came from all directions… it was a familiar sight to anyone who had grown up in an urban environment, whether it was down on Earth or up in one of the space colonies.

"Ah," said Lan, "I love this. I don't care what people say about the traffic or the noise or the crowds; I'm a city girl at heart, and I always will be."

Quatre smiled. "Nothing wrong with that."

Lan nodded. "There's just an energy that flows in the air when you've got a ton of people mixing and mingling in a confined area. It's so much more vibrant and alive than anywhere else. Kira and Lacus can have their quiet, out of the way home with the reverend and the orphans; I'll take the city any day."

"Speaking of the city," said Quatre, "how much further until we get to this club of yours?"

Lan smiled and pointed out the front window. "See that brown building up ahead? It's on the third floor."

Quatre followed her finger. "That one? Doesn't exactly look like a place where you'd find a modern club."

"Well, you know what they say about looks being deceiving and all," Lan replied, "Trust me, you're gonna love this place."

Quatre nodded. "I'm looking forward to seeing it."

Lan grinned as she pulled off into a nearby parking lot. "Hope you don't get seizures, because this place has some pretty mean light shows!"

"I'll be fine," said Quatre as Lan slowly drove into an empty slot in the lot.

She turned off the engine and looked over at him. "You ready?"

"Yeah," said Quatre, "Let's do this."

The two of them stepped out of the car, and after locking it Lan quickly slipped her arm through Quatre's and smiled at him. Quatre gave her a nod and a smile in return and let her take the lead.

A cool evening breeze blew through their hair as the two of them crossed the street and climbed up the concrete steps that ended at the building's front door. Moving forward, Quatre held the door as Lan stepped through before following her into the building.

"Up this way," she said, pulling him to the right towards a staircase.

A little bit later they were on the third floor. Quatre could see a modest line up ahead, and at the front there was a table positioned between the crowd and a set of sliding doors.

"Don't worry," said Lan, "They usually check people in pretty quick. The door charge is a bit steep, but since it's for all night and your first two drinks it's totally worth it!"

"Sorry that you're picking up the tab," said Quatre a bit sheepishly, "I don't think my money's any good in your world."

Lan shook her head and smiled. "Nah, don't worry about it. Trust me, I don't mind it one bit!"

"How do they keep track of your drinks?" he asked, "Don't they have a way to tell who's on their free drinks and who has to pay up?"

"They give you a little line on your wrist with a marker," said Lan, "Once you've got two of them you start paying for drinks."

Quatre nodded. "I see. I'll stay within the limit."

Lan gave him a playful elbow. "Don't hold back on my account, cutie! I told you that I don't mind dishing out a bit of cash tonight. Feel free to pound back some shots! I know I will!"

"Another reason for me to drink in moderation," said Quatre with a smile, "Someone needs to stay sober for the drive home."

"Hey!" said Lan, putting her hands on her hips, "I'm more than capable of telling when I've had enough, thank you very much! I've had practice at this, unlike you!"

Quatre held up his hands in mock surrender. "All right, point taken… but I still might take your keys from you if I think that you've had too much."

Lan gave him a fierce grin. "You'll have to fight me for them, flyboy. Think you're up for it?"

"Now that's just not fair," said Quatre, "How am I supposed to fight you when you're the one treating me to all this?"

Lan smirked. "So are you throwing in the towel already? I thought Gundam pilots didn't run up the white flag."

Quatre folded his arms. "I never said I wouldn't fight you, just that I'd prefer not to. I got a rule about not hitting girls, and I'd prefer not to break it."

She surprised him by slipping her arm back through his. "Such a gentleman… well, I guess that I can let you have the keys tonight if it comes down to that. However, if you put a single scratch in my baby I'll make you pay for it!"

Quatre smiled. "All right, I promise that I'll be careful with it."

"Thanks," replied Lan as they stepped up to the table.

Quatre watched as she dug into her purse and pulled out some cash. She handed it to the lady sitting behind the table before holding out her hand. The woman reached over and placed a small stamp on her wrist.

"What's that for?" asked Quatre.

"Reentry," said Lan, "It's good for the whole night. Your turn."

Quatre nodded and held out his hand for the woman to stamp. The lady then turned back to Lan, who handed over her purse.

"Name for the tag?" asked the woman.

"Lan," she replied.

The woman nodded. "We'll keep it here for you."

"One sec," said Lan as she grabbed the purse and pulled out some cash.

Passing the purse back to the woman, Lan then turned to Quatre. "You got pockets, so do you mind holding onto this? It's our drink money for after we get through the ones that are on the house."

Quatre nodded and accepted the bills. "Sure thing."

Lan smiled. "Thanks. Well, you ready to party?"

Quatre chuckled as he pocketed the money. "As ready as I'll ever be."

She took his hand. "Follow me, Desert Prince."

He let her guide him around the table towards a pair of grey sliding doors. As they opened up Quatre saw that behind them was a hallway unlike any other that he'd seen before. The walls were black as night, but the floor was a transparent grid with white lights flickering beneath it. More while lights flashed on the ceiling and also created a snowflake effect of sorts on the black walls. At the far end of the hall was another set of sliding doors, and Quatre could hear the distinct thumping of a bass coming from up ahead.

"Whoa!" said Quatre as he blinked, adjusting to the light.

Lan smirked. "You think this is impressive? Just wait until we actually get through those doors up there!"

Quatre nodded. "After you."

Once again he let Lan gently pull him along. As they got closer towards the sliding doors at the other end of the hallway Quatre could hear the distinctive sound of techno music in addition to the bass. The doors would occasionally open as patrons passed through, and in those brief glimpses Quatre caught some bright flashes of white light similar to what he was seeing in the hallway.

A few seconds later they were standing before the doors, and Lan turned to him and grinned. "Prepare to have your mind blown."

Quatre smiled. "Lead on."

The two of them stepped forward, and the doors slid open. As they walked through Quatre's eyes widened even more so than they had when he'd seen the hallway.

"Wow…" he said softly.

It was a considerable understatement, but it was the best that he was currently able to come up with. Quatre found himself standing with Lan at the top of a white staircase. To the right and left stretched a balcony that wrapped all around the large chamber. There were chairs and tables spread out along that upper level, but they were at the periphery of Quatre's vision; his concentration was on what was at the bottom of the stairs.

Spread out in the center of the room was a broad dance floor. It wasn't made of wood or metal, but consisted of a large glass grid much like what he and Lan had walked through in the hallway. The walls of the club were black as well, which served all the better to contrast with the bright lights that were engulfing the room. Beneath the glass and on steel brackets that were hanging from the ceiling were large arrays of lights that were currently bathing the room with flashes of white. The dance floor was framed by six pillars, three on each side. These weren't just simple support columns, though; they were clear like the dance floor, and there were lights set up inside them as well. Also along the sides of the dance floor were two white trees, which Quatre initially thought were ceramic but then realized were actually holographic. At the moment their 'branches' were bare, but Quatre had to wonder if they would stay that way. Spread out along one of the side walls in the lower main area was a very long bar, and the broad shelves appeared to be very well stocked. At the far end of the room on a raised platform was the DJ, and to Quatre's surprise it was what appeared to be a man wearing a tuxedo and a big fuzzy bear mask.

"Are you just going to stand there in awe," said Lan, leaning so close that Quatre could feel her breath on his ear, "or are you going to come with me?"

Quatre turned towards her and was struck by the smile on her face. There was something incredibly enticing about it, almost intoxicating. When combined with the glimmer of light in her eyes it was all but irresistible. All he could do was nod and let her slowly pull him down the stairs.

As they made their descent Quatre could feel the temperature going up. It wasn't surprising given that the club already had a significant crowd, especially on the dance floor. However, the heat wasn't overly oppressive, something that Quatre credited to the club's ventilation system. It might also have been because he'd been to the deserts of North Africa; he could handle _much _greater heat than what he was currently dealing with.

They reached the bottom of the stairs in short order, and Lan started guiding him towards the dance floor. As they approached Quatre saw the lighting begin to shift, slowly transitioning from white to red. The dead branches of the holographic trees began to shift too, sprouting crimson 'leaves' that soon engulfed them.

The dance floor was slightly elevated, and as they climbed up on it Quatre could feel his heartbeat begin to increase. He was totally out of his element here, and he'd be lying through his teeth if he said that he wasn't nervous. However, he appeared to be in very capable hands; Lan was guiding him through the throng of moving bodies with practiced ease.

"This is a good spot," said Lan after a few moments, all but yelling so he could hear her over the thrum of the bass and the techno beat.

"Are you sure?" said Quatre, wondering if he would lose his voice and his hearing before the night was over.

Lan nodded and grinned, waving her arm around to gesture at the crowd. "Yup! Right in the middle. Now, come on, cutie; don't leave a girl hanging!"

Quatre could feel his face turning beat red, and that wasn't counting the shift in the club's lighting. "Well… the thing is…"

Lan smirked. "What? Can't dance?"

Quatre sheepishly smiled. "I can dance classically, but not like… well, _this_."

Lan stepped up to him, her smile softening. "Trust me, it's not hard. All you have to do is relax and let the beat take over."

"Easier said than done!" Quatre replied.

Lan turned around, looking over her shoulder and winking at him. "Then let me lead. Hands on my hips, flyboy!"

Quatre could've sworn that his face would catch fire if it got any hotter. Hesitantly, he took a step forward and did what she'd told him to. The fabric of her dress was quite smooth, but also rather thin; the way he could feel the curves of her body left very little to the imagination.

_This has got to be a dream_, he thought.

But it wasn't; the way she started moving her hips, perfectly in time to the beat, was proof enough of that. She raised her arms over her head and reached back with her right hand, bringing it to Quatre's cheek.

"Relax," she said, smiling over her shoulder at him, "Loosen up your body, and let the music take over. Let _instinct _take over. Don't over think it; _feel _the beat, the bass. Your body will figure out the rest."

Quatre could only nod and take a deep breath, inadvertently inhaling her sweet perfume in the process. He was completely out of his depth here, but somehow he found himself starting to move. Letting her set the pace, Quatre started to shift back and forth with her, all the while keeping his hands on her hips.

"Mmmm," he heard her say, her voice almost a moan, "that's more like it, babe."

"You think so?" said Quatre.

"Yeah," she said, "Now, don't be afraid to explore a little."

Quatre was _very _glad that Duo wasn't here right now; his face was redder than the lights of the club. The way she was looking at him made it quite clear what she had meant by 'explore'.

_No_, he thought, _I'm not that kind of guy…_

All the same, he found himself almost unconsciously shifting his grip on her, gently moving his hands up and down as she shifted and turned with the beat. At the same time as his hands were acquainting themselves with her body he realized that his eyes were joining in, taking in this beautiful pixy that had placed herself before him and invited him into a whole new world. Already there was sweat beginning to show on her skin from the heat of the club, but the way it slowly ran down her face, neck and shoulders only served to enhance the intoxicating aura that now surrounded her.

As if all this weren't enough, Quatre was soon confronted by Lan once again reaching back over her shoulders towards him, this time with both hands. They slowly ran their way along his face and neck, and even though she wasn't looking directly behind her they effortlessly found his collar and undid the top two buttons of his shirt before Quatre had realized what happened. The moment the opening presented itself one of her hands slipped inside his shirt and teasingly ran it along his chest before withdrawing.

"Very nice…" she said, and while she might've had to raise her voice for him to hear him, with the blare of the music and thrum of the bass it sounded much more like a whisper one would save for a particularly _intimate _setting.

Her hand was out of his shirt now, but she wasn't done with him by a long shot. While her left hand went up to caress his neck her right worked its way down his torso. At the same time she took a step backwards, pressing her body against his. She continued to twist and turn to the music, picking up her pace as the song reached its peak and taking Quatre along for the ride.

Then she dipped low and pulled him down with her. He kept his hands on her hips while hers ran down his legs before she rose and brought them back up again. For a split second he felt her right hand brush along his inner thigh, but it was enough to practically set Quatre on fire.

Lan looked over her shoulder at him, and from the smirk on her face and the light in her eye Quatre was all but certain she knew the effect that she was having on him. "You're getting into it now, aren't you, flyboy?"

All Quatre could do was smile and hope that he didn't look too nervous. "I think so…"

She brought her hand to his face again and ran it down his cheek. "Oh, I _know _so, cutie!"

The beat of the music was rapidly building up again, and Quatre could feel that they were going into the home stretch of the song. Clearly Lan could too; she was now all but writhing against him, her hands flung into the air, and had an almost blissful look on her face. When they hit the final note she suddenly twirled around and threw her arms around him. Holding herself up by his neck, she raised her right leg and wrapped it around his waist.

"Not bad for your first time, Quatre," she said with a grin, her face mere centimeters from his.

Quatre nodded. "Well… I had you guiding me."

"That you did," Lan replied as she lowered herself back to the dance floor, "Now… are you ready for round two?"

As if on cue the DJ struck up a fresh beat, and the lighting of the club began to shift again. This time it became a mix of white and black, with the six pillars in particular looking almost like they were filling up with grey smoke as the contrasting lights mixed things up.

Quatre smiled. "I think so."

"Good," said Lan as she once again raised her hands in the air and pressed herself up against him, "because I know I am!"

All Quatre could do in response was put his hands on her hips again and let the beat carry them both away.

….

Wiping the sweat away from her brow with one hand while pulling on Quatre's arm with the other, Lan smiled at him as the two of them stepped down from the dance floor. "Whew, I'm frying! What do you say we get a couple drinks before diving back in for another round?"

Quatre nodded and returned her smile. "Sounds good to me!"

Guiding him towards the bar, Lan felt like she was in her own little slice of heaven at that moment. The night was going better than she'd ever imagined it would.

_This was totally the right call_, she thought, _I don't care what the others say. I'm having a ball, and I think it's safe to say that my date here is too!_

Sure, Quatre had been hesitant at first, but that was a quality that Lan had actually found to be endearing with him. The fact that such a powerful pilot could be completely out of his element in a place like a nightclub was rather cute, and Lan was greatly enjoying getting him acclimatized to this new environment. Quatre was making great progress under her guidance, and Lan wondered what she could try with him next when they went back out onto the dance floor.

Multiple images flashed through her mind, each more risqué than the last. Lan couldn't help but look over at Quatre and grin. If only he knew what she was thinking right now…

_Then again_, she mused, _it's probably for the best that he doesn't. He was pretty nervous when we started off, and I don't want to scare him. Still… there's a lot more fun that I can have with him once we get back out there!_

Before they could do that, though, some refreshment was definitely in order. Even a nightclub veteran like Lan could only go so long before she needed a break, and she was willing to bet that Quatre could use one too. He'd actually kept pace with her surprisingly well considering that this was his first time at a place like _Purgatorio_. Lan supposed that that was testament to the endurance he had build up with his combat training and experience on the battlefield.

Quatre whistled as the two of them walked up to the bar. "Wow! Quite the selection they've got here!"

Lan nodded; the broad bar spread all along the wall, and the shelves behind it were fully stocked with bottles from end to end. "Oh, yeah; this place has one of the best drink spreads in the city! You name it and _Purgatorio _has it!"

"Good," said Quatre, "because I'm not really sure what I want."

"I'll get you started," said Lan as she leaned against the bar and flagged down the barkeep.

When he approached her she smiled. "Strawberry Sunrise, no ice. Oh, and one of those cute little umbrellas!"

The bartender nodded. "And your friend?"

"Same for him," said Lan before Quatre could even open his mouth.

The barkeep nodded and pulled a marker out of his pocket. "Hands, please."

Lan held her right hand out but stopped Quatre from doing the same with her left. "Put them both on me."

"Are you sure?" asked Quatre, "That's both of your house drinks right there."

Lan shrugged and smiled at him. "It's cool. You can return the favor later, flyboy!"

Quatre nodded. "Okay, then."

"All right," said the bartender as he put two small black marks on Lan's wrist, "They'll be up a minute."

"Sound good," said Lan as she took a seat, "We'll be right here."

As the bartender went off to take another patron's order Quatre sat down beside her. "Thanks."

"Anytime," Lan replied, "Like I said earlier, I gotta have you try a Strawberry Sunrise before the night's over!"

"I appreciate that," said Quatre with a smirk, "although… don't take this the wrong way, but it sounds like chick drink."

Lan grinned. "So what if it is? I'm getting you one, and you're going to enjoy it! If someone gives you crap about it, feel free to punch them in the face! Hell, I'll join in!"

"I'll pass on that," said Quatre, "I'm not the type to start up a bar fight."

"That's a shame," said Lan with a wink, "because I bet that a guy like you could hold your own in one."

Quatre laughed. "Maybe, but I don't want to test that tonight. I'd hate to ruin what you had planned for us tonight."

Lan nodded. "Yeah, I guess it would kinda suck if they kicked us out before our second round on the dance floor."

"Your drinks," said the bartender as he passed over two glasses, each filled to the rim with a pink-red liquid and topped off with an umbrella.

"Sweet!" said Lan as she grabbed hers.

"Thank you," said Quatre as he took his.

The bartender nodded before heading off to take another order. Lan turned to Quatre and raised her glass.

"To a fun night out," she said with a smile.

Quatre returned her smile as he touched his glass to hers. "A fun night and a lovely tour guide."

Lan continued to smile, but she was surprised to feel her face get just a bit warmer; was she actually _blushing_? If she was, she wasn't about to let it throw her off her game.

"Keep it up with the silver tongue, Desert Prince," she said, batting her eyes at him, "and I'll let you carry me off to your Arabian palace!"

Quatre chuckled. "I don't have one of those, but I do have a penthouse in the colonies that I think you'd like."

"Is that an invitation on the off chance I make it out to your world?" asked Lan with a smirk as she took a sip from her drink, "You and me in your ritzy apartment way up in the stars?"

"On the off chance… maybe," said Quatre as he tested his Strawberry Sunrise, "Hmmm… that's pretty good."

Lan nudged him with her elbow as she took another swig from her glass. "See? I told you that you'd like it!"

Quatre nodded. "The flavor's great. It definitely lives up to its name."

"Yup," said Lan, "and the umbrella's a nice touch. You can never go wrong with one of those cute little umbrellas in your drink!"

Quatre laughed. "I won't argue with you there."

The two of them spent a few minutes enjoying their drinks. The whole time Lan had a smile on her face as she savored the combination of her beverage, the atmosphere of the club, and the company that she had for the evening. She knew that she had lucked out in convincing Quatre to go out with her tonight, and she was enjoying every second of it.

_I really snared myself a keeper, didn't I?_, she mused as she looked over at her date, _So bashful at first, but he loosens up pretty well… Quatre, I would've killed to meet you sooner._

She found it pretty hard to believe that a guy like him didn't have a sweetheart waiting for him back in his world. Lan knew that Quatre had been telling her the truth when he'd said that he was single, but in her view the odds of a man like him actually being on the market were incredibly small. He was rich, good-looking, nice, a complete badass in a mobile suit, and he had a shy and nervous side to him that was absolutely catnip to a girl like her. Really, in Lan's eyes it was almost an indictment against the women of Quatre's world that none of them had managed to win his heart by now.

_Whoa there, girl_, she silently warned herself, _You're not thinking of making a serious play for him, are you? You know that he's going to be headed back home sooner or later, and where he's from is way beyond even the most dedicated long-distance relationship. Nothing wrong with the two of you having some fun while he's here, but you can't go getting too attached to him…_

And yet…

…part of her _wanted _to get attached to him.

Lan looked down at her drink. It was easy enough to tell herself that she was just out to enjoy herself tonight with some decent company, but her heart seemed determined to complicate things. Her earlier conversation with Adaline and Priscilla was creeping into her thoughts again, as much as she might wish otherwise. Was she really just after a casual night at the club tonight…

…or did she want _more_?

Lan thought back to their first round on the dance floor. The feel of his hands on her hips, her body pressed against his, her hands wandering over his face, down his neck, and even slipping into his shirt… Lan wouldn't deny that she was a flirty girl, but her actions tonight had been bold and forward even by _her _standards. The way she was treating Quatre so far was not that of a young woman just looking for a fun night at the club with no pressure drinks and dancing; she was definitely putting some effort into making it more… _meaningful_.

_Ah, crap_, she thought, _This was supposed to be casual fun, but now… damn it, maybe Adaline and Pris were onto something._

She stole another glance at her male companion. Would it really be a bad thing if she enjoyed herself with him in more than just the club? The two of them were both adults, after all; no legal barriers to speak of. They were also mobile suit pilots; partakers in a very dangerous profession. There was always the chance that if they were forced to return to the battlefield that the next fight could be their last. In that light, was it really so wrong for Lan to indulge her desires when the opportunity presented itself?

She turned back to her drink before Quatre could catch her staring at him. It was the damn anniversary that was making everything so complicated, as much as she wanted to keep it out of her mind. Poor Quatre had no idea what Lan had dragged him into, and part of her wanted to keep it that way. Why drop her emotional baggage onto his shoulders on a night when they were supposed to be having fun and relaxing?

And yet…

…she was _very _tempted to do exactly that.

_He's a good guy_, she mused as her eyes covertly darted towards him again, _and you heard him back at the party; he's no stranger to losing family members. He'd get where you'd be coming from, and you already know that he's about the best damn listener you could ask for. Why not just fess up? He's not the type to judge you for that, right?_

He certainly didn't seem to be that way, but Lan had her reservations all the same. She'd extended her invitation to him under the guise of having a good time, and if she revealed that she had an ulterior motive she had no way to know if that would damage her standing with him. Lan didn't want him to see her as simply using him to distract herself from her own pain, and the fact that she already cared so much about what he thought of her was as sure a sign as any that he had grown on her significantly in the week that she'd known him.

Lan sighed. Suddenly it was _she _who was in over her head rather than the cute blond pilot who had zero nightclub experience. A place like _Purgatorio _was home turf for a girl like her, but with her head and her heart at war with each other she was considerably off balance. The thought of coming clean with him clashed with her desire to chuck it all to the back of her mind and simply keep on enjoying the night for what it was. She could keep things beneath the surface for now, but Lan had to wonder how long she could maintain the front that she was putting up.

"Hey," said Quatre with a friendly smile, "what's on your mind? You're staring pretty hard at your drink."

_Shoot_, she thought as she smiled back, hoping that it looked innocent enough, _I keep forgetting how perceptive this guy is. I guess that's a hazard you court when you're chasing a Gundam pilot…_

"Yeah," said Lan as she took a big gulp of her beverage, "Totally good. Just kinda spaced out there for a moment. Sorry!"

"It's fine," Quatre replied, "as long as it's not because of me. I'd hate to be boring you on a night like this."

Lan shook her head. "Trust me, flyboy, that's not it. Hell, I don't think an interesting guy like you _could _bore me! Besides, I'm the one who extended the invitation, remember? It's up to me to provide the entertainment."

Quatre laughed. "Maybe. I guess I'm just old fashioned that way."

Lan grinned as she took another swig of her drink. "Nothing wrong with that, Quatre."

"Thanks," he said as he joined her.

"Speaking of old fashioned," said Lan once she'd swallowed, "You mentioned earlier that you can dance classically. What kind of dancing were you referring to?"

Quatre smiled. "Well, for starters I know waltz and tango. Then there's ballroom, bachata, and salsa. Basically, if it involves two people and it's not a nightclub, I can take a decent stab at it."

"Nice," said Lan, nodding appreciatively, "I don't suppose you could take me for a twirl sometime, could you?"

"Maybe," said Quatre, "although I'd need different music, and I'm a bit rusty."

"How do you know those styles in the first place?" she asked.

"My father," Quatre replied, "or at least, the instructors he hired, along with a few of my sisters. Being the only heir of the Winner family means more than just having to know my way around the boardroom; I have to be deft on the ballroom floor as well. Consider it a high society obligation."

Lan giggled. "Oh, sounds like you have it _so _rough, mister multi-billionaire!"

It spoke greatly to his credit that he was able to laugh along with her even though she was making fun of him. "Hey, I'd like to see _you_ survive five-hour dance courses with my older sisters and hired tutors! You'd have blisters the size of cherries by the time they'd be through with you!"

Lan smirked. "Sounds absolutely _terrifying_."

"You have no idea," said Quatre.

"Well, then," said Lan as she raised her glass, "here's hoping that I'll never have to find out!"

She took another gulp of her drink, and Quatre followed suit. Lan was surprised to realize that they had both already finished their drinks; she'd forgotten that the beverages served here usually came in smaller sizes than at a regular bar. No doubt it was a cost cutting measure cooked up by management.

"Damn," she said, "that didn't last as long as I thought it would."

"Well," said Quatre with a smile, "looks like the next round's on me. What do you want?"

Lan winked at him. "Surprise me."

"All right, then," said Quatre as he flagged down the bartender.

It didn't take long for the man to make his way over to them. "What can I get you?"

"Two shots of bourbon," said Quatre, "One for each of us. They're both on me."

The bartender nodded as he grabbed their empty glasses and marked Quatre's hand. "Coming right up."

Lan smirked at her companion. "Well, now. I didn't see that one coming."

Quatre chuckled. "You did say to surprise you, right?"

Lan nodded. "True. I just didn't see you as a guy that really went for the hard stuff like that."

"I like to indulge on occasion," said Quatre, "I just don't pound them back one after another. Remember what happened at the party?"

Lan laughed. "You mean before you and I passed out? Yeah, I do."

"And now you know why I try to avoid that," said Quatre, "I seem to recall you nursing a rather painful hangover the morning after."

"Ugh," groaned Lan, "Don't remind me. I don't know which was worse; the hangover or Shemei's so-called cure."

"Exactly," said Quatre, "So what do you say to avoiding a repeat of that?"

Lan had to laugh at that. "Now that I can drink to."

"Here you go," said the bartender, sliding over two full shot glasses across the bar to her and Quatre.

"Good timing," said her blond companion as he caught them both and passed one to Lan.

Lan took hers and smiled at Quatre as the two of them raised their glasses. "To avoiding horrible hangover cures."

Quatre returned her smile as he touched his glass to hers. "Cheers."

Lan pounded back the shot, enjoying the flavor of the bourbon. It was an excellent contrast to her Strawberry Sunrise from earlier, and it was made even better by the fact that it had been Quatre's choice.

"Ah," she sighed, "that's good stuff!"

Quatre nodded. "Yeah. Think that'll be it for me, at least for the time being. It's pretty strong."

"Plus that's the last of our house drinks," said Lan, "We'll be dishing out the dough from here on out."

"No sense in rushing things," said Quatre, "We've still got plenty of time to hang out here before ordering more, right?"

Lan smiled. "Yup. Plus I'll be taking you back out on the dance floor soon, so we can work off some of that booze. In fact, I think you'll have even more fun out there now that you've got some alcohol in your system!"

Quatre laughed. "You might be right. We'll just have to wait and see."

"Why wait?" said Lan with a wink, "What do you say we head out there right now?"

"In a little bit," Quatre replied, "Mind if I hit the restroom first?"

Lan nodded. "Sure thing."

"Good," said Quatre, looking around, "So, uh… which way is it?"

Lan pointed off to the left. "Far end of the bar. Can't miss it."

Quatre nodded as he hopped off the barstool. "Thanks. I'll be back soon!"

"And I'll be right here, Desert Prince!" she replied with a grin.

_No way in hell am I going anywhere_, she thought as she watched him walk off, her eyes lingering on his toned rear-end, _The night is young, and I'm going to enjoy it to the fullest!_

She smiled as she shifted on the barstool and leaned back against the bar, her eyes on the mass of people out on the dance floor. She and Quatre would be back out there soon enough, and she could hardly wait to see what having a couple drinks in his system would do. He didn't appear tipsy by any stretch of the imagination, but Lan new from experience that even a single drink could help the right person loosen up a bit.

Lan sighed as the minutes went by. "Ah… what a night!"

"Miss," said a familiar voice from behind her.

Lan turned around to see the bartender slide another shot glass full of bourbon towards her. She raised an eyebrow; she hadn't ordered anything, and she said as much to him.

"It's from the guy down there," he said, pointing off to the right.

Lan followed his hand and saw a man sitting further down the bar. He was wearing a white dress shirt with a black vest over the top, a red tie, black gloves and black dress pants and shoes. He was definitely on the taller side and appeared to be of Asian descent, with light skin, gray eyes and back hair that included a well trimmed beard and mustache. Lan saw that he was looking at her, and he smirked when he saw her looking back.

Lan shook her head and pushed the shot glass back towards the bartender. "I'm with someone tonight. Besides, he's not my type."

"You might want to reconsider that, miss," said the bartender.

"No," said Lan dismissively, "I really don't."

"You sure about that?" asked the bartender, "He's the manager of this club."

"I don't care," said Lan, "and he doesn't hold a candle to the guy I'm with tonight. Tell him to go hit on someone else."

The bartender shook his head. "Miss, you're going to regret it if I pass that message along to him."

Lan chuckled. "Please. I've pissed off people _way _more dangerous than your manager. Tell him to buzz off. I'm waiting for my date to get back."

The bartender nodded. "Very well. Don't say I didn't warn you."

"Noted," said Lan dryly.

The bartender disappeared and Lan tried to put the whole matter out of her mind. However, it appeared that the club manager couldn't take a hint; Lan could see four guys in full suits walking towards her, each wearing sunglasses and bowler hats.

_Oh, great_, she thought, _Must be some of his muscle. Can't this guy take a freaking hint?_

She shrugged as the four toughs approached her. Quatre wasn't back yet, but Lan wasn't worried; she was more than capable of handling herself.

"Excuse me, miss," said the one that was leading the group, "Our boss would like to have a drink with you."

"So I noticed," she replied, "I was hoping that the bartender had relayed my reply to him. If he didn't then I guess you boys will have to serve as my messengers."

"It would be in your interest if you accepted the boss's invitation," said one of the others, trying to sound intimidating but to Lan clearly putting too much effort into it.

"I wouldn't call it interesting," said Lan with a smirk, "More like boring as hell. Come on, boys, don't you have anything better to do than harass a paying customer? That can't be good for business, you know?"

"Our boss doesn't take kindly to being rejected," said a third guy, "He's offering to be quite generous to you, but he can take that offer away just as easily."

"Good," Lan replied, "then tell him to take his generosity and share it with some other girl. I'm not interested, okay? Tell him to take a hint already. If he wants to prove he's not completely without a pair then he can come over here himself. My answer's still going to be the same, but at least then he'll have shown that he has some balls."

The quartet was clearly thrown off balance; they obviously weren't used to someone talking back to them and defying their boss so blatantly. It was very amusing for Lan, and if their boss wasn't being so pushy she might actually have felt sorry for them. However, she was seriously starting to get annoyed with all the attention, not to mention it was souring her opinion of the club.

_If this keeps up I'm going to have to scratch this place off my list of favorite hotspots_, she mused, _It's too bad, really; it's got a lot to offer._

The four men were still standing there, so Lan waved them off dismissively. "Well, what are you waiting for? Either go and fetch your boss so I can shoot him down in person or take a hike. In fact, take a hike either way."

The four men looked at each other for a moment, clearly at a loss for what to do. Eventually two of them headed off, and Lan assumed that they were going to get their boss. The other two stuck around, folding their arms and doing what Lan assumed to be their best to intimidate her. Needless to say, the effort was falling flat.

_Come on, Quatre_, she thought, _Hurry up and get back here. The sooner you and I get back out on the dance floor the sooner I'll be rid of these bozos._

A minute later she heard a deep chuckle, and as she looked up she saw that the manager himself had shown up, along with the two flunkies that had gone to fetch him in the first place. He had a cocky smirk on his face, but Lan had a feeling that it wouldn't last too long.

"Well, now," he said, "You're feistier than you look."

"I get that a lot," she said dryly.

"I like that in a woman," he said with a smile, "You've got spine, lady."

"I get that a lot, too," she replied, her eyes narrowing, "It's usually right before I break someone else's spine."

The manager raised his hands, but that smug smirk did not go away. "Calm down, miss. Just offering my compliments."

"I don't want them," said Lan, "I want you and your schmucks here to back off. What part of that don't you get?"

The bearded man folded his arms. "Girl, do you know who I am?"

Lan shrugged. "Besides being the club manager? Not a clue."

"The name's Xiong," he said, "Junior Xiong."

Lan had to fight _very _hard to keep from laughing. "Wait, Junior's your _first _name? Dude, you need to go home and slap your parents."

She saw his right eyebrow twitch; she seemed to have struck a nerve. "Don't you know the Xiong name, girl?"

"Sure," said Lan offhandedly, "I'm assuming your daddy's the head honcho of your clan. The Xiong family owns most of the top tier nightclubs in this city, and apart from that you guys act as facilitators and go-betweens for several of the gangs around here. That bit's all behind the scenes, of course. Did I leave anything out?"

"So," he said, "you know all of that, but you're still turning me down?"

"Yup," Lan replied, "Now, why don't you and your pals buzz off?"

Junior chuckled. "And let a little girl like you boss me around in my own club, in front of my men? That's not going to happen."

He looked over his shoulder and nodded. Behind him Lan could see several other men in suits standing not too far away, doing their best to look menacing.

_He's really serious about this_, she thought as she scanned the club, _If it comes down to it, I think I can take them on, but I really wouldn't mind some backup. Come on, Quatre; any minute now would be great._

She sighed. Junior clearly wasn't about to back off, so she would have to step things up. She'd have to get a little physical now, and she hoped that what she had planned would send the right message with just the right amount of force.

She crooked her finger and motioned for him to come closer, batting her eyelashes to entice him. "Well, if you're going to be like that, why don't step up here?"

Junior smirked as he leaned in. "Warming up to me, now?"

Lan waited until he was at just the right spot before smirking in reply. "Hardly."

Striking with lightning speed, she slapped him across the face. The blow was carefully calculated; not enough to knock him off his feet, but sufficient to rattle his cage. If this didn't get her point across then nothing short of a brawl would.

"You know," she said, "I _really _hate pushy guys. Why don't you take your pathetic excuse for charms and your entourage and get the hell away from me? No means _no_, you douchbag!"

A big red mark was on Junior's left cheek, but it wasn't nearly as red as the rest of his face was getting. Lan had the sinking feeling that her slap was not having the desired effect, and she supposed that things would only escalate from here. She slid off the barstool, bracing herself for whatever came next.

"You _bitch_," Junior growled at her, "You're going to regret that!"

"Hey!" said a familiar male voice, "What's going on here?"

Lan smiled; her backup was here. "Quatre! About damn time!"

"Sorry," he said as he approached, "Are you okay?"

Before Lan could answer sever of Junior's henchmen moved between her and Quatre. Junior himself stepped forward, giving the Gundam pilot a look that held nothing but contempt.

"Who do you think you are, blondie?" he asked.

_If you knew the answer to that question I guarantee that you'd be pissing yourself right now, punk_, Lan thought, _If you pick a fight then you're going to find out the hard way._

Quatre looked completely unfazed by Junior and his posse's attempts at intimidating him. "I'm her date. Do you mind if I come through? I owe her another round on the dance floor."

One of Junior's thugs reached out and pushed Quatre back. "Beat it, kid. She's coming with our boss."

Quatre raised an eyebrow and looked past him at Lan. "Did I miss something?"

"I'm _not _going with them," Lan replied firmly, "No matter how much they insist otherwise."

"That's where your wrong, lady," said Junior, "You _are _coming with me, and there's nothing you or your friend can do about it."

"_You're _the one who's wrong," said Lan, her eyes narrowing, "Quatre?"

"Yeah?" he said.

**Start "I Burn"**

She grinned. "Let's _dance_."

Quatre nodded, and the light in his eyes was all she needed to know that he'd gotten her real message. "All right."

The lights of the club once again shifted to red, which Lan thought was quite fitting given what was about to happen. Without further adieu, she turned to Junior…

…and punched him in the face.

The club boss went down hard, and from the quite audible 'crunch' Lan was sure that she'd broken his nose. Before Junior's backup could react Quatre took a swing of his own, catching the tough that had pushed him in an uppercut right under the chin and sending him flying into the bar.

"What the…" one of the thugs began.

Lan didn't let him finish. With a swift roundhouse kick she caught him right in the side of the head and sent him down to join his boss. At the same time Quatre followed up his initial attack with an immediate strike on a second member of Junior's posse, kicking him in the gut and knocking the wind out of him.

"Bastards!" snarled another man, "Get 'em!"

Now the thugs started swinging back, for all the good that it did them. Lan effortlessly ducked one guy's punch before grabbing him by the neck and slamming him into the ground. Meanwhile Quatre had actually caught the arm of a man who had tried to hit him and turned his force against him, throwing him over his shoulder and behind the bar.

Blocking another man's kick with her arm, Lan countered by grabbing his leg and throwing him into one of his comrades, sending them both tumbling to the floor. For his part, Quatre ducked the punch of another guy before grabbing him by the collar of his shirt, pulling him forward and head-butting him, knocking him out of the fight.

Lan smiled. "Nice!"

"Dance floor!" he replied, "We need more room!"

Lan nodded. More of Junior's henchmen were approaching, and if she and Quatre kept fighting where they were now they'd get pinned against the bar. The dance floor offered much more room to maneuver; it was already clearing out thanks to scared patrons who had caught sight of the growing bar brawl.

"Let's go!" she yelled as she grabbed a barstool and broke it over a hapless goon's back.

"Right behind you!" said Quatre as he slammed his knee into another man's gut.

Junior's men were disorganized, so it was relatively easy for Lan and Quatre to fight their way through the few that stood between them and the dance floor. Seeing that the brawl was heading their way, the patrons reacted exactly the way Lan had hoped that they would; they were now fleeing _en masse _towards the club exits.

"I thought you said that you weren't the type to get into bar fights," said Lan with a smirk as she kicked a man in the groin.

"I didn't have much of a choice with this one," Quatre shot back as he kicked a thug in the face, "I don't care if you can handle yourself; I wasn't going to let you take on these guys alone!"

Lan smiled as she climbed up onto the dance floor. "Aw, you really are a sweetheart, aren't you?"

"Save the compliments for later," said Quatre as he joined her, "We've got incoming!"

He was right about that; suited thugs were coming in from all directions. In a few seconds Lan and Quatre were surrounded by at least a dozen members of Junior's security crew, and they looked pissed. Instinctively she moved so that she was back to back with Quatre and raised her fists, ready to take on the crowd.

"Think you're good for half of them?" she said.

Glancing back, she saw him looking over his shoulder at her and smirking. "If you want I'll take more and you can grab the leftovers."

Lan smiled. "And let you show me up? If Shemei found out she'd never let me hear the end of it!"

Quatre nodded, his eyes narrowing. "All right, then. Get ready!"

"Take 'em down!" yelled one of the men.

The group rushed in, trying to swarm and overwhelm them. Blocking one man's punch with her arm, Lan countered with a strike right to the guy's face. The blow sent him stumbling back into one of his friends while Lan made a high kick which caught another goon right in the side of the neck, taking him down. A third man tried to tackle her, but Lan simply caught him by the arm and chucked him back at his comrades.

On his end, Quatre was showing his half of the crowd why it was a _very _bad idea to mess with a Gundam pilot, even if he currently lacked his Gundam. The man who had led the attack against him quickly found himself on the floor gasping for breath as Quatre's fist connected with his throat. The second threw a right hook, but his arm was caught by Quatre, who quickly proceeded to bend it behind the man's back so he could position the goon between himself and the others. Taking full advantage of his improvised shield, Quatre pushed the man forward so that his head intercepted a punch from one of his comrades. The Desert Prince then made a hard kick at the man's leg, and even over the chaos of the fight Lan heard the sickening crunch of bone breaking.

_He's a _lot _tougher than he looks_, she thought with approval as she ducked beneath a foe's kick, _He may be cute, but he can be downright brutal in a fight if he wants to!_

Of course, Quatre wasn't the only one who could get vicious during a brawl. Grabbing the leg of the man who'd just tried to kick her, Lan then proceeded to bend that leg in a direction it was _not _supposed to go. The goon's agonized scream only ended when Lan's palm met his chin in a hard strike and knocked him out cold. Another thug was on her a split-second later and took a hard swing, but Lan simply caught his arm with one hand before bringing her elbow down on it. There was a very audible crack, followed by a howl of anguish from her target as his arm now hung uselessly at his side.

She grinned, although from her enemies' perspective it probably looked more like a lioness baring her fangs. "Come on, boys! I'm just getting warmed up!"

They looked at her hesitantly, clearly intimidated; none of them wanted to make the first move. That was fine by Lan; she'd do that for them.

She rushed forward, and before they knew it she was on them. Her first strike was a high kick that caught one man right in the head and sent him to the floor. As she landed she went into a spin, and another kick nailed a goon in the gut. Ducking to avoid a punch, she jabbed her fingers into her attacker's throat, and as he started gasping for breath she followed up with a punch to the face that knocked him out cold.

"On your right!" called Quatre.

Lan raised her arms and turned, and not a second too soon; a particularly big bruiser took a swing at her, and even though she blocked the attack the force behind it still pushed her back a bit. Before she could retaliate, though, Quatre did the job for her by making a sweeping low kick that knocked the big guy's legs out from under him. The goon hit the floor face first, and as he tried to get back up Quatre brought his foot down _hard _on his shoulder; an audible crack and subsequent scream told Lan that the Gundam pilot had broken his adversary's collar bone.

"Thanks!" she said as she caught a man's punch and flung him over her shoulder.

"Anytime!" Quatre replied before kneeing another man in the gut.

The fight went on, but their opposition was starting to wear thin; Junior simply didn't have enough hired muscle to take on the likes of a veteran Coordinator and a warrior from the same world as Heero Yuy. A few of the thugs that they'd knocked out had rejoined the fray, but they were shaky on their feet, not particularly eager to face off against the duo that was handing them their asses so handily.

_Too bad Shemei's not here_, she mused as she choke slammed a foe, _She'd enjoy a good brawl like this!_

Raising her arms again to meet the next foe, she was surprised to see that no one was approaching her. The same went for Quatre. In fact, the few men still on their feet were starting to back away.

"Monsters…" one of them muttered, "They're goddamn monsters!"

"Screw this!" said a second, "We're not getting paid enough to fight fucking commandos!"

She heard Quatre chuckle. "Commandos? Not quite, but close enough."

"Forget this shit!" yelled another goon, shaking his head, "I'm outta here!"

Lowing their arms, Quatre and Lan watched as Junior's men began to head for the exits. Lan thought that the fight would be over right there, but her hopes were dashed by a loud and familiar male voice.

"You cowards!" yelled Junior, "No one's leaving until these two have been thrashed! Do you _want _the head honchos to hear about how you all got your asses kicked by a chick and her blond pretty boy?"

Lan smirked. "Bold words coming from the guy who went down at the start of the fight, Junior!"

He sneered at her. Blood was streaming from his clearly broken nose, but he wasn't letting that stop him. He strolled up onto the dance floor and rolled up his sleeves, ready to throw down even when his subordinates were quitting the field. For their part, his henchmen didn't seem in a hurry to back him up.

"Give it up," said Quatre, "You can't win. Let us both walk out of here peacefully and no one else needs to get hurt!"

Junior shook his head and shot Quatre a venomous glare. "And let my father and the other bosses hear how I got rolled in my own club? That's not gonna happen, blondie!"

Quatre took a step forward, but Lan intercepted him and put her arm out in front of him. "Don't. Let me take him."

Quatre raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"

Lan smiled. "As much as I love the thought of you stepping up to be my knight in shining armor, I don't want that this time. This punk started all this because he doesn't know how to take 'no' for an answer. I want to be the one that puts him in his place."

Quatre nodded and stepped back. "All right. Be careful."

Lan leaned forward and surprised him, and herself, by kissing him on the cheek. "Just sit back and watch, sweetheart. This won't take long."

Quatre smiled, and she had the satisfaction of seeing him blush. "Okay."

As Quatre backed up Lan moved to the center of the dance floor. Raising her hand, she gave Junior a classic 'come and get me' gesture.

Junior scowled as he raised his fists in a guard position. "You're gonna pay for this."

Lan smirked. "Oh, I don't think so."

He rushed at her, moving surprisingly quick for a man as big as he was. However, as far as Lan was concerned that only gave her more momentum to use against him. She could see his muscles tense before he wound up for his punch, and when his right fist came forward Lan grabbed him by the arm and flipped him over her shoulder.

Junior's back hit the floor, but he jumped back to his feet quite swiftly. He wasted no time in coming at Lan again, but she was ready for him. This time she ducked low and made a sweeping kick, knocking Junior's legs out from under him and sending him back to the floor again.

"You bitch," he growled as he got back on his feet again.

Lan chuckled. "Keep it coming, Junior. I can do this dance all night if I have to."

He charged again, but this time it was a more deliberate move. His arms were held in close to his chest, and this time when he made his punch Lan was forced to block. She struck back by kicking him in the shins, but this time Junior didn't go down. He took another swing at her, and when Lan blocked this one he quickly followed it up with a kick, forcing Lan to duck and roll to the right to avoid getting hit.

Junior smirked as she came back up. "You caught me off guard earlier. It won't happen again."

"It doesn't matter," Lan replied, "You still can't beat me."

"That's what you think!" Junior snarled as he brought up his knee.

Lan sprung back to evade the blow, doing a flip in the process. When she landed she then rolled to the left to avoid a one-two combo from her foe. Coming up from her dodge, she retaliated with a flurry of punches and kicks, her training combined with the speed of a Coordinator resulting in an overwhelming barrage. A fist found Junior's solar plexus, and a foot nailed him in the kidney.

Junior wheezed as he went down on one knee, struggling just to breath. He looked up at Lan, and she grinned; it was time for the coup de grace.

"Lights out, boy," she said before nailing him on the side of the head with a hard right hook.

**End "I Burn"**

Junior fell face first to the floor, and this time Lan knew that he was out cold. She rubbed her right fist with her left hand; Junior's skull was rather thick.

"You okay?" asked Quatre as he walked over to her.

She looked over at him and smiled. "Yup. He's just got a hard head, and in more ways than one!"

Quatre looked down at Junior, his eyes narrowing. "He should've backed off. Trying to force you to go along with him like that was disgusting."

He looked genuinely indignant at Junior's behavior, something that actually made Lan's heart flutter a little. Her cute date really was a gentleman, brought up with classic ideas of how to treat a lady. It was quite refreshing, and Lan adored him all the more for it.

She reached over and took his hand. "Well, thanks to you backing me up I was able to teach him a lesson. I owe you one, Quatre."

Quatre shook his head and smiled. "No, you don't. You're the one who invited me out tonight. Having your back was the least that I could do."

Lan smiled back. "You really are just about the nicest guy I've ever met, you know that?"

She had the satisfaction of seeing him blush a bit. "Well, my sisters were very clear on how they wanted me to treat girls. I guess I'm just following their advice."

"I'll have to thank them for that if I ever meet them," said Lan.

She then looked around the club, surveying the damage she and her date had wrought. Any property damage was minimal, but the body count was another matter. There had been no fatalities, thankfully; Lan and Quatre had both shown at least that much restraint during the fight. However, the number of injured men around them was definitely in the double digits. Some were knocked out cold like Junior, while others were massaging bruises and limping away to tend to fractures and broken bones.

"Well," she said, giving Quatre another smile, "that was a thing, eh?"

Quatre chuckled as he looked around the club. "Yeah… we really did a number on them, didn't we?"

"No kidding," said Lan with a sigh, "Looks like I won't be able to come back here anytime soon. A real shame, too; this place really is a great nightclub."

"Too bad the manager and his subordinates don't reflect that," said Quatre, "You told me earlier that they tend to behave themselves. So much for that."

Lan shrugged. "That was during my first time here. I guess I didn't catch the manager's eye back then. Lucky me."

"So, what now?" asked Quatre, "We can't stay here."

Lan nodded and smiled. "I know. No worries; there's more than one club around here, you know."

Quatre's eyes widened. "Wait, you _still _want to do this?"

Lan gave him a playful elbow. "What's the matter, flyboy? Did the big fight wear you out?"

Quatre shook his head. "No, I just would've thought that after something like this…"

"That I'd decide to head home and call it a night?" Lan finished for him, smirking, "Quatre, please. I'm not about to let a club brawl get in the way of my fun. I want at least one more round of dancing with you, and I'm gonna get it!"

Quatre smiled. "Well, when you put it that way, how can I refuse?"

"You can't!" said Lan triumphantly as she looped her arm through his, "Come on, Desert Prince. The night's still young, and I intend to enjoy every minute of it!"

….

**October 16****th****, C.E. 73 **

_Man_, thought Quatre as he enjoyed the cool breeze flowing through the open car window, _what a night._

That it was. The club fight at _Purgatorio _hadn't slowed Lan down at all. She'd wasted no time in dragging him into another club and out onto the dance floor, and Quatre had quickly lost track of time as he and his date gave themselves over to the music. By the time they'd finally left he was sure it was the very earliest hours of the morning. It was still dark and the stars were out, but Quatre's internal clock was telling him that this was the latest he'd stayed out in quite some time.

And it had been worth every second. Their first round of dancing and drinks at _Purgatorio_, their second round at the new club... Quatre had enjoyed it all. In fact, he was surprised to realize that he could even include the fight with Junior and his thugs on his list of entertainment for the evening. Quatre had a hard time believing that since he wasn't the type of guy to chase after a fight like that, but he had to admit that part of him had enjoyed it all the same.

_It's because of her_, he thought as he looked over at his lovely date, _I went to not one but two night clubs, danced like I've never danced before, and got into a bar fight… and it was all because of her._

_ Lan Zhao…_

_I've never met a woman that was _anything _like you before._

The window on her side of the car was open too, and her raven hair flowed freely in the breeze. Her pale skin was still glistening with sweat from the heat of the club they'd left, and when combined with the smile on her face and the light in her eyes it made for a _very _enticing image. The fact that her short black dress left very little to the imagination was the icing on the cake.

She glanced over at him and winked. "See something you like, cutie?"

Quatre could feel his face practically burning in response. "Yeah…"

He was surprised to see a hint of red appear on her face as well, although her smile did not fade. "Well, I could say the same here. How was that for a fun night on the town?"

Quatre smiled. "It was… really something else."

Lan nodded. "You got that right. I really don't want it to end…"

Quatre found himself in complete agreement with her. It was really too bad that she was driving him back to the estate now, but it couldn't be helped. They'd both had a very energetic evening, and despite their reluctance to end it he knew that they were both tired and needed the rest. Still, part of him wanted to fight that weariness, if only to extend this night for just a little while longer.

_What's gotten into me?_, he thought, his eyes never wavering from their gaze on Lan, _I've never felt this way about any girl before…_

"Well," said Lan with a sigh, "there it is."

Looking ahead, Quatre could see the long driveway that led to the estate. The car slowed down to turn onto it, and he knew that they'd be at the mansion all too soon.

For some reason, he found himself desperately wanting to fight against this night coming to an end. It only grew the closer they got to the estate. It was an urge unlike anything he'd ever experienced before, and as he looked at Lan again he wondered if she was feeling it too. The way she kept glancing at him with that light in her eyes suggested that she definitely felt _something _towards him. It was almost like there was some silent argument raging in the back of her mind, and she was torn between one action or another, and while Quatre knew that it was egotistical of him to think this he was absolutely sure that whatever she was mentally debating had to be about him.

Far too soon, they reached the mansion. Pulling the car off to the side and parking it, Lan shut the vehicle off and turned to him. "Come on. The least I can do is walk you to the front door."

Quatre smiled as he opened his door. "Thanks."

The two of them got out of the car and headed up towards the door. Quatre immediately felt Lan grab his hand, and without thinking he gave it a squeeze in reply. He looked at her and saw that she was smiling at him again, and he couldn't help but return it. Their pace was slower than normal, yet another sign of their reluctance to bring this night to a close.

Before he knew it, they were both standing before the front door. Quatre reached into his pocket and grabbed the spare key he'd been given by Heero soon after his arrival. He unlocked the door, but did not actually open it yet.

He turned back to Lan. "Well… thank you, Lan. Tonight was… really something else."

Lan nodded, and although her smile remained the same as before there was a new light in her eyes, one that Quatre felt he should recognize but couldn't really think of what it was at the moment. "Yeah, it really was. Thanks for being my date tonight, Quatre."

Quatre could feel himself blushing under her gaze. "Anytime. You're… really an amazing woman, Lan."

_What's gotten into me?_, he thought, feeling his heart hammering in his chest, _Why am I acting like this?_

She stepped closer, and before Quatre could react both her arms were over his shoulders. Her left hand went to the back of his neck, while she raised her right to stroke his left cheek.

"And you're one hell of a guy, Quatre," said Lan softly, her eyes never leaving his, "Desert Prince… you really do live up to the 'Prince' part of your codename, you know?"

His face was all but burning now, and her words did nothing to calm his racing heartbeat. "You really think so?"

"Absolutely," she said, her voice little more than a whisper as she leaned in…

…and kissed him on the lips.

It was a soft and moist caress, but to Quatre it was absolutely exquisite. The lingering taste of her last drink of the evening, another strawberry flavored beverage, seeped into his mouth, and when combined with the scent of her perfume it made for an incredibly potent cocktail. Before Quatre realized what he was doing he began to return the kiss, his arms unconsciously embracing her and pulling her closer.

It only lasted for a few seconds, but it felt like a lifetime all in its own. As their lips parted Quatre looked deep into Lan's beautiful brown eyes again. That light was there again, an energy of sorts that Quatre had been struggling to put a name to but now desperately wanted to identify. Surprising both his date and himself, he leaned back in for another kiss.

It was a gesture that Lan eagerly returned. Quatre may have initiated this second lip-locking, but Lan had instantly moved onto the offensive. This time Quatre could feel her mouth open and her tongue rush forward, and he readily surrendered to it. His lips parted just enough to allow her access, and soon enough their tongues intertwined in their own embrace. Now his heartbeat could match the rate of fire of any of Heavyarms Arsenal's Gatling Guns, and the fire in his chest felt like it would easily eclipse the searing power of Sandrock Saladin's Heat Shotels.

Once again their lips eventually parted, but this time it was a much slower process. Once again Quatre met Lan's gaze and saw that same energy in her eyes, this time radiating like the light of the moon overhead. This time he knew _exactly _what it was, and he had no doubt that that same energy could easily be seen in his eyes as well.

"Come inside with me," he said, his voice a husky whisper the likes of which he'd never heard himself utter before.

He saw Lan's eyes widen ever so slightly before she gave him a fierce and passionate grin. "As you wish, my prince."

Without a word he opened the front door, pulled her inside, and shut it behind him. He barely had time to lock it before he felt Lan pull him towards the stairs. From there it was a race to his bedroom and the night's grand finale.

….

The morning sunlight streamed through the window as Quatre slowly woke up. Blinking his eyes and trying to rub the sleep out of them, he gradually became aware of something warm lying against him. His eyes widened as he realized that it was none other than Lan Zhao. Her head was resting on his right shoulder, her body snuggled up with his under the sheets…

…and neither of them was wearing any clothes.

_Wow_, he thought, his face flushing red as images from last night rushed through his mind, _That really wasn't a dream…_

The lovely Chinese pixy next to him stirred and moaned. Quatre watched as she raised her head slightly, her eyes slowly opening and meeting his.

She smiled, and Quatre saw a slight blush on her face. "Hey, there. Did you sleep well, handsome?"

All Quatre could do was return her smile. "Yeah. You?"

She leaned over and kissed him. "Thanks to you. You gave me quite the… _workout_… last night. Gotta say, I'm impressed… especially since it was your first time."

Quatre's blush only grew at that, but he still managed to keep smiling all the same. "Well… I had you leading me."

Lan lay her head down against his shoulder again, reaching over and running her hand through his hair as she did so. "And you rose to the occasion. Talk about a night to remember, huh?"

Quatre gave a small laugh, more out of relief than anything else. "You've got that right."

She rose again and move until her face was over his. "Listen, Quatre… I know I asked a lot of you last night, and you _really _stepped up to the plate. The two clubs, the fight, and when we got back here… that was _amazing_, every second of it."

"I'm sensing a 'but' coming up," said Quatre, his eyes narrowing.

Lan giggled. "Yeah, there is. I… I need you to do something else for me."

Quatre smirked as he reached up to caress her face. "Don't you think you're being a bit greedy?"

"Maybe," she replied, giving him a surprisingly gentle smile, "but… it's important. Please, Quatre, say yes. If you do I _promise_ that I'll explain everything to you."

Quatre sighed. "You know, your flight lead gave me a little warning before you picked me up last night. She said that you were going through a lot right now and asked me to take care of you… but she didn't really go into the details beyond that."

Lan nodded. "So, Shemei talked to you, eh? Well, I guess that's not surprising. I'm glad that she didn't tell you the 'why', though. It's something I actually wanted to tell you myself, but I didn't know how. Look, there's something I need to do today, and I want you by my side when I do it. If you do this, it'll help you understand me a little more, and I'll fill in everything else for you. You've got my word on that."

All Quatre could do was give her a reassuring smile. "All right, Lan."

Lan leaned down and kissed him again. "You really are a sweet guy, you know that?"

"So you keep telling me," Quatre replied.

"And I'll keep telling you that as much as I want to," Lan replied before rolling off him and pulling back the covers, "Come on, Desert Prince; let's get cleaned up and grab some breakfast. After that, we've got a little trip to make."

….

"Those look very lovely," said the woman behind the cash register.

"Thanks," said Lan.

What the woman was referring to was the bouquet of white flowers that Lan proceeded to pay for. There were a dozen of them wrapped up in it, and Lan took the woman's appraisal of them to be a good sign. Quatre had already given his approval of them, even though Lan hadn't yet told him what exactly they were for.

_I've kept him out of the loop for longer than he deserves_, she thought, _but that'll change soon enough. Once we get to the next stop it'll be time to come clean about it all. I just hope he understands…_

So far things seemed to be going along the right track, but Lan had to admit that she was still nervous. Quatre had been very accepting when she'd told him that they needed to run an errand before she could finally tell him what was really going on. This little flower shop was that errand, and Lan wondered if Quatre suspected what the bouquet she had just purchased was really for.

It hadn't taken the two of them long to clean up and get on the road. Since it was expected that members of the core Terminal crew would be using the mansion fairly regularly even if they didn't actually live there it was well stocked with spare clothing. Lan and Quatre were both using it now; they were dressed in the simple attire of Morgenroete company employees, and even though it was rather plain Lan had to admit that Quatre still looked sharp in it. She hoped she looked decent. Her hair was tied up back in a pony tail, and she'd made sure to scrub up thoroughly in the shower, but she still found herself concerned about her appearance.

_That's not like you_, she mused, _Probably just nerves. You've got good reason to be a little anxious, after all._

She felt a hand gently grab her arm, and she glanced over at Quatre. The young man had a concerned look in his eyes.

"Are you doing okay?" he asked.

Lan forced a smile for him. "Yeah. Thanks, though."

"Sure," he replied, although he still looked a little worried.

_It's easy to forget how perceptive he is_, she thought, _I mean, he's just so cute; you don't really expect the adorable ones to be quite so observant._

"Thank you for your business," said the woman behind the counter as Lan finished paying for the flowers.

Lan nodded. "You're welcome. Come on, Quatre."

"Right behind you," he replied.

They left the store and hopped in the car. As they shut their doors Lan passed the flowers to Quatre.

"Do you mind holding those?" she asked, "It won't be for long. I just don't want them to get messed up before we get there."

Quatre nodded and smiled as he took the flowers. "No problem."

She then started up the car and pulled out of the parking lot. Heading out on the main road, Lan stole a quick glance at the car's built-in GPS system to make sure she was going the right way. She hadn't been this way in a long time, and as she drove along she couldn't help but feel her heartbeat begin to increase.

_Keep it together_, she silently told herself, _You're better than this. You're not going to break down, especially not in front of him._

She needed fresh air, so she hit a key on the armrest along the driver's door causing her window to go down. On the other side of the car Quatre lowered his window as well, and soon the vehicle was filled with a pleasant and cool breeze. It provided some respite, but given Lan's growing internal turmoil it was but a temporary relief.

"It sure is lovely out today," said Quatre, "I can definitely see why you and the others decided to settle here after the war."

Lan nodded. "Yeah, that and the fact that almost nowhere else would've been willing to take us in. We did fight against both the Earth Alliance and ZAFT, after all."

"And they both still hate you for it," said Quatre, "That's rough. At least when our war was over we didn't have to worry about the government being after us. The only ones who might've wanted us dead were the diehard remnants of the old order and the survivors of the insurgent factions."

"Well, lucky you," said Lan with a smile, "It'd be nice if the Atlantic Federation and the PLANTs could learn not to hold a grudge, especially since we wound up saving both their hides in the final battle."

Quatre shrugged. "Some people have a harder time letting go and moving on than others."

"Ain't that the truth," said Lan with a sigh.

As they continued to drive along they left the city behind. The road now ran along the coast, and it took all of Lan's discipline to keep her eyes on the street ahead and not on the lovely view of the beach and the ocean off to her right. Of course, her passenger was under no such constraints.

"Wow," he said softly, "That's beautiful…"

Lan smiled. "A regular island paradise, right? The best part is that it's like this pretty much year-round."

"Must be a popular tourist destination," Quatre replied.

Lan nodded. "Yeah, and not just with people on Earth. Since Orb's neutral we get a lot of traffic from the colonies too, including the PLANTs. This is one of the few places on Earth Coordinators can come to and know that they'll be safe."

"Is the stigma really that bad?" asked Quatre, "I would've thought that it wouldn't be so severe by now."

Lan sighed. "Well, it used to be a lot worse, but even back then Orb was always the one place on the surface we knew that we could go if we wanted to be accepted and remain on Earth. Of all the nations on Earth the worst place to be if you're a Coordinator is the Atlantic Federation. The other Earth Alliance nations aren't exactly friendly towards us either, but they're not blatantly hostile like North America is."

Quatre shook his head. "Heero gave me plenty of information on this world, but I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the sheer venom behind the hatreds that led to the Bloody Valentine War. Sure, in our war I saw some pretty nasty individuals who were willing to kill billions of innocent people, but even that wasn't quite as… I don't know…"

"Visceral?" Lan filled in, "Primal? Disgusting?"

Quatre nodded. "I guess any of those would work. In our world the big divide was between Earth and the colonies, but here it's racial… I don't know why, but somehow that just makes it worse."

Lan nodded. "I'm completely with you there. When people are out to kill you just because of how you were born… well, I'll just say that it ain't pretty and leave it at that."

"Probably for the best," said Quatre quietly.

A few minutes later Lan saw her exit and turned off the main road. The car was now going up a hill, and Lan knew that their destination was at the top of it.

"Almost there," she said softly, talking more to herself than Quatre.

All too soon the car had reached the top of the hill. A cemetery was off to the side overlooking the cliffs, the beach and the water below, and it was into its parking lot that Lan pulled into. Finding a spot and stopping the car, Lan shut the vehicle off and took a deep breath.

_Come on_, she thought, closing her eyes and trying to center herself, _You can do this…_

Her eyes opened when she felt Quatre gently lay his hand on hers. Turning towards him, she once again saw that concerned look in his eyes.

"Lan," he said, "You don't have to do this."

Her eyes widened. "Quatre…"

"Look," he said, "I may be in the dark here, but I still recognize a graveyard when I see one. Whoever those flowers are for probably wouldn't want you to be working yourself up like this just to see them. You can come back another time."

Lan shook her head and smiled. "Thanks, but… I have to do this. Please, Quatre… I need you with me, now more than ever."

Quatre nodded. "All right. Let's go."

The two of them got out of the car, and Lan led the way towards the front entrance. Slipping through the gate, she walked towards the rear of the cemetery. Most of the grave markers were simple bronze and stone plaques, but even if they all looked alike Lan knew _exactly _where the one she sought was.

All too soon she found it. It was at the far end, at a vantage point that overlooked the sea. Such spots in the graveyard did not come cheap, but Lan's friends had called in a favor with Cagalli, who had made sure that they'd gotten this exact plot of land. She looked down at the marker. It had recently been cleaned and polished, and the inscription and name were easy to read.

_In memory of a beloved and devoted mother,_

_Lian Zhao._

_March 11__th__, C.E. 31, to October 16__th__, C.E. 72_

Lan knelt down and gently placed the flowers in front of the grave marker. "Been a long time… mom."

She looked over her shoulder up at Quatre and gave him what she knew was a weak smile. "Hey, would it weird you out if I… talked to her… for a little bit? I mean, I know she's gone and all, but still…"

Quatre crouched next to her and put his hand on her shoulder, giving her an understanding smile. "It's all right. I can wait out front if you want some privacy."

Lan reached over and put her hand over his. "No… I want you to stay. This won't take long. If she really is watching from beyond, I want her to see you here with me."

Quatre nodded. "Okay."

He stood up and stepped back to give her a little room, and Lan turned back to the grave marker. "Sorry I haven't come out here sooner. I… I couldn't really work up the nerve. I mean, in my head I knew that you were gone… I was there for the funeral, after all. Still, I always felt that… if I came out here again… I'd be making it final. Stupid thought, I know, but… well, I was never the brightest girl, we both know that."

Lan smiled. "Well, I brought you some flowers. Pretty sad way to make up for lost time, but you won't mind, right? I know you always liked the color white, so that's why I got these. They reminded me of the snowfall you told used to tell me about… what you saw back when you were growing up in the country. I wish that you and I could've gone back there during the winter so you could show it to me."

She glanced back at Quatre before looking at the marker again. "By the way, I hope you don't mind that I brought someone with me. His name's Quatre Reberba Winner. He's from the same world as Heero; funny how that works out, right? Anyway, he's a really great guy. Nice, smart, good in a fight, and _very _cute. I think you'd like him. I know I do."

Lan closed her eyes for a moment before continuing. "I… I got revenge for you. It was after the funeral. Me, Shemei, Adaline, Pris… even had some help from Bristow, Heero, and Murrue. I know it probably wasn't what you would want your little girl to do, but there was no way I was going to let that scumbag get away with what he did to you. So, dad's gone now, and if there's any sense of justice in the afterlife then he didn't go to the same place you did."

Lan sighed. "It didn't make me feel any better. I guess it wasn't supposed to. You were still gone even after he bit the dust. Still… I had to do it. Now he can't hurt anyone else. No one like you and me has to suffer at his hands any more. It's over."

Lan looked up at the sky, and wondered if anyone was looking back. "I miss you. I'd give almost anything to have you back here, you know that. Still… what's done is done. Coming here… this is how I finally put it to rest… put _you _to rest. A year late, I know, but better late than never, right?"

Lan smiled again. "I don't know when I'll be able to work up the courage to come here again, so it might be awhile before I stop by to say hi. Even so… I want you to know that I love you, mom. Always have, and always will. Rest in peace… and dream of the snow you loved all those years ago."

Lan stood up and turned to Quatre. "Thanks. I needed that."

She could feel something warm on her face. Lan was about to raise her hand to touch it, but Quatre beat her to it. There was his gentle hand…

…wiping the tears from her cheeks.

There eyes met, and before Lan knew what was happening Quatre embraced her. His arms were strong but gentle, and Lan wanted nothing more in that moment than to just lose herself in them.

"Go ahead," he said softly.

Her eyes widened as she looked at him. "What are you…?"

He simply raised his hand and caressed her cheek. "You're not done yet. I think we both know that. You can let it out. It's just us here. Us and her."

Lan smiled and kissed him on the cheek. Then she buried her face in his chest and let her tears flow again. She didn't make a sound, but she could feel herself shaking. All the while Quatre simply held her, one hand on her back and the other behind her head.

A couple minutes passed before she felt her body begin to relax, and she knew that it was over. Quatre seemed to sense it to, for he let go of her and took a step back. His eyes met hers again, and she was struck by the gentle smile on his face.

"Better?" he said.

Lan couldn't help but smile in return. "Yeah… thank you."

"Anytime," he replied, "So, do I get the back story now? I can make a few guesses, but I'd still like the details to fill in the blanks."

Lan nodded. "You do. I owe you that much."

She looked down at her mother's grave for a moment before turning back from him. "When I told you that I was from China, and that my mom was from way out in the country, I didn't tell you anything about my dad except for the fact that he was from Shanghai. My mom went there looking for work. She got a job as a waitress at a pub. It was a nice place… except for the fact that it was owned by the Red Serpent Triad."

Quatre's eyes widened slightly. "I've heard that name before… they're active in my world."

Lan chuckled. "Funny how that works out. I wonder if that's the only gang our worlds have in common."

"I wouldn't be surprised if there were others," said Quatre.

Lan sighed. "Anyway… my father was the local boss. He managed the pub, along with Red Serpent's gambling, racketeering, theft and prostitution rackets that were based out of there. My mom caught his eye while she was working one night, and he made her his mistress. She… didn't have much of a say in the matter."

"I'm sorry," said Quatre softly.

"That's not the worst part," Lan continued, "My father had his fun with her, but when he found out he'd gotten her pregnant he decided he wanted something more than just a bastard; he wanted a super-human enforcer that was bound by blood to him."

She could see the proverbial light bulb turn on in Quatre's head. "So he made you a Coordinator."

Lan nodded. "Yup. Mom took care of me when I was little, but when I got old enough my father hired some martial arts instructors to start training me. Since I was a Coordinator I quickly exceeded all expectations. All but one…"

"Let me guess," said Quatre, "Your blood tie to him didn't translate into loyalty."

Lan smiled. "Got that right. As soon as I was old enough to understand what was really going on I started plotting my escape with mom. We caught a lucky break; father had this thing for precious gems, and I learned exactly where he kept them. Cracking the safe was child's play; the lock code was his birthday, which I figured out just by watching him unlocking the safe once. When he made me a Coordinator I don't think he took into account the fact that my mind would work _much _faster than his. As soon as I got an opening I stole the best stones that he had, grabbed my mom and got the hell out of there. The money I made selling them on the black market was more than enough to cover the costs of immigration to the PLANTs."

Quatre nodded and smiled. "Sounds like you really stuck it to him. Plus you got you and your mother out of a pretty bad situation. She must've been very proud of you."

"She was," said Lan, "She always said it was one of the greatest stories ever, but it was too bad that she couldn't tell her friends about it. Then again, who would've believed her? We stopped thinking about it after a while anyway and focused on our new lives in the PLANTs. The years went by, I joined ZAFT, met Shemei and the others, fought in the war, defected and got my mom into hiding, helped save the world… and you know the rest of the story."

"All but two bits," said Quatre, his eyes narrowing, "How your mother died, and how you got your revenge."

Lan sighed. "Right. Well, the first part… Quatre, do you know what one of the problems of having fought against big enemies and survived is?"

Quatre shook his head. "No. What is it?"

"When you've taken on and triumphed against foes that have the power of entire fleets and armies behind them," said Lan, "you tend to forget about the smaller enemies you've fought before. When compared to the might of the Earth Alliance and ZAFT, the likes of the Red Serpent Triad seem like schoolyard bullies in comparison, don't they?"

Quatre nodded. "That's a good way to put it."

"When we came to Orb," Lan continued, "we took precautions to avoid being discovered. However, those were aimed primarily at hiding us from the likes of the Atlantic Federation and the PLANTs. I didn't think for a moment about anyone else being a threat. Up in the PLANTs I never had to worry about Red Serpent or any other gangs from Earth. Sure, the PLANTs have their own organized crime rings, but those are small potatoes compared to the ones on Earth, and they're completely separate entities in any case. I didn't need to hide from Red Serpent once I was at L5… and I didn't even think about having to hide from them when I came to live in Orb."

"But they have a presence here, don't they?" said Quatre, a dark look in his eyes.

Lan nodded. "Yeah. It's small; a few illegal gambling dens, along with a racketeering ring and one smuggling operation. Still, it's here… or at least it was. They aren't anymore. You'd have to go a few dozen kilometers out to sea and a few down to the ocean floor to find their corpses."

"You eliminated them," said Quatre; it wasn't a question.

"They were our first targets," Lan replied, "When mom and I ran and stole those gems, my father put out a syndicate-wide bounty on our heads. No one was in any position to act on it, though… not until we settled in Orb after the war. Mom took on another waitressing job. She didn't have to thanks to the resources we had available, but she said that she wanted to have an actual job, one that she was qualified for. The place she worked at was really nice. It was even Chinese themed, so she felt right at home. That should've raised a red flag for me; Red Serpent and other triads naturally gravitate towards places like that to use them as fronts for their operations. I was sloppy and never considered it. Mom worked there for quite a while, but her luck eventually ran out; one of the customers happened to have worked in Shanghai back when she and were there, and he recognized her. He informed my father, and he set up the hit."

"How did it go down?" asked Quatre.

Lan sighed. "Well… it was quick… for my mom. She was on a break, she went outside to have lunch since it was a nice day out… and two guys came up and gunned her down right there."

"How were you able to identify them as members of the Red Serpent Triad?" asked Quatre.

"It wasn't hard," Lan replied, "mainly because they left a calling card; a white paper with the Chinese characters for 'divine retribution' written on it. It's something Red Serpent leaves behind whenever it kills people they consider to be traitors."

"That's sloppy of them," said Quatre.

Lan nodded. "It was. After… after I got over the initial shock, it wasn't hard to find the local branch that had carried out the hit. Shemei, Adaline, Pris, everyone else in Terminal… they were more than ready to make those bastards pay for what they'd done. We hit them commando style… and killed every last one of them. They outnumbered us, but it didn't matter. With our skills it wasn't anywhere close to a fair fight. After that we used our resources to arrange for the disposal of the evidence. It wasn't really hard; the Orb police still have no idea who wiped those guys out, and they never will."

"But that wasn't the end of it," said Quatre knowingly, "It could never end while your father was still alive."

"You're right about that," said Lan, "This would have to be a smaller crew, though; the government of the Republic of East Asia is a signatory member of the Earth Alliance, after all. We couldn't just waltz in and go about our business. So we did infiltrated with a group of seven; myself, Shemei, Adaline, Pris, Bristow, Heero and Murrue."

"I'm surprised those last two agreed to go along with it," said Quatre, "Since it was a personal matter for you I would've thought that Heero and Murrue would limit themselves to logistical support."

Lan shook her head. "Heero wanted in; said it was the least that he could do. As for Murrue, well, she wasn't about to let Heero take on the triads without her backing him up."

Quatre smiled. "She really does love him, doesn't she?"

Lan nodded and smiled. "Yeah, she does. Lucky woman… but, then again, I met _you_ eventually, so luck swung my way as well."

"That's one way to put it," said Quatre, "So, how did you and the others take out your father?"

"Right," said Lan, focusing back on the topic at hand, "Well, we spent about a week and a half planning our raid. My old man had actually gone up a bit in the Triad world, and was now working out of one of their office buildings. Security was tighter than it would've been at his old pub, but nothing that we couldn't handle. The actual combat unit consisted of myself, Shemei, Adaline, Pris, and Heero. Murrue and Eric were in a van nearby that they'd set up to monitor the communications of both Red Serpent and the local police."

"We infiltrated through the sewers," she continued, "We'd already scoped out the place and knew who was civilian and who was a full-time Red Serpent thug. We waited until sundown before attacking. Our opening strike was a series of well placed grenades; we wiped out about half of their on-site forces in about three seconds. From there it was just a few floors and some freaked out goons separating me from my old man."

"It probably didn't take you long to get to him," said Quatre.

Lan shook her head. "Nope. We cut through them faster than when we blitzed the Avalon Line during the war. I was in my father's office before I knew it… and looking the bastard right in the eye, too."

"How did you kill him?" asked Quatre.

Lan closed her eyes for a moment before responding. "Quickly… and that was _way _more than what that son of a bitch deserved. Two bullets between the eyes; I wanted to be _damn _sure that he wasn't getting up again. After we confirmed that he was dead we got the hell out of dodge; we were clear of the country and in international waters less than two hours after it all went down."

Quatre nodded. "Sounds like a very clean operation."

"It was," Lan replied, "I might've actually felt proud of myself had it been back during the war and it was a special op. But this… all I felt when it was over was _tired_. Tired… and empty. My old man was dead, but mom was still gone… nothing I do can ever bring her back."

Lan nodded at the grave marker. "Look at the date of death, Quatre… and tell me what today is."

"The one year anniversary of her death," said Quatre.

He hadn't even looked, but Lan supposed that he didn't need to. He'd probably seen the date when she was 'talking' to her mom.

"So," she said, "does that help you put last night into context?"

Quatre nodded. "Yeah… it does."

Lan stepped towards him and put both her hands on his shoulders. "Quatre… to tell you the truth, I've been dreading this day for months now. The one year anniversary of my mother's death? I had no idea how to cope with that. I was able to temporarily forget about thanks to the colony drop attempt and the battle up in orbit, but after that I would have nothing. Nothing… until I met you during that fight."

She fought to keep her gaze locked with his; she refused to look away as she told him the truth. "I know how this looks, Quatre. I can't blame you for thinking that I was using you as a distraction last night… and for the past week, either. I'd be lying if I said that that didn't play into it at all, but Quatre… there's so much more than that to this."

"Like what?" he asked.

She looked deep into his eyes, trying to gauge where he stood. There was nothing incriminating in his gaze, which she took as a good sign, but he did appear to be somewhat guarded. He was withholding judgment until she'd laid everything out, and Lan honestly could've kissed him just for that.

"Quatre," she said, smiling, "even if it hadn't been the anniversary of my mother's death… I think I still would've done exactly what I did with you last night. You… you're an _incredible _guy. I mean, I've only known you for a _week _and I can hardly stop thinking about you! You're gentle and kind and understanding, but at the same time you're one hell of a fighter and a badass mobile suit pilot! You're shy and awkward when it comes to girls and the nightlife, but you're also smart and insightful and considerate! I know that I act like a party girl, but the truth is that a guy with a similar mentality as mine isn't what I'm attracted to. I like guys who actually have depth and substance to them, who can hold their own both in a fight and in a conversation and have a solid brain inside their skulls. In all my life I've never met a guy that was _anything _like you!"

She raised her right hand to his cheek. "I… I know that you'll have to go back to your world when this is all over. Not just because it's what you call home, but because of everyone that's waiting for you. Your sisters, Rasheed and the rest of the Maganac Corps; there's no way that I could ask you to abandon them, and I won't. When you have to return to your world, I'll accept that. Until that day comes, though… I want to be with you. I want to show you _my _world, and not from the perspective of the battlefield. I want to spend as much time with you as I can, and I want to enjoy every second of it… and I want _you _to enjoy it. You can tell me more about your world and your family, and I'll do the same with my world and my _new _family."

Lan then lowered her hands and took a step back. "However… I'll only do that if you say yes. If… if you just want to be casual friends while you're here, I'll accept that. I promise you, I will. I know that I've moved pretty damn fast, here… way faster than I have any right to, especially after all that you've done for me. I won't put any pressure on you, and what happened last night we can just chalk up to the heat of the moment. So… what's it gonna be, Quatre?"

She watched as he closed his eyes for a moment. Her heart was racing now like never before. She had absolutely no way to know what he would say, how this would all play out. She'd laid everything out for him; the ball was now completely in his court.

_Whatever you decide_, she thought, _I will accept. After all that you've done for me, Quatre, I owe you at least that much._

He opened his eyes, but he didn't speak. Lan didn't know what to do…

…until he stepped forward and kissed her.

It was just like their second kiss last night, and Lan eagerly gave herself over to it. Her lips were open and her tongue darted into his mouth in the blink of an eye, and she threw her arms around him and hoisted herself up, wrapping her legs around his waist in the process. For his part, Quatre held her in his arms and continued to kiss her with every ounce of fire that he could muster.

Eventually they were forced to come apart so they could breathe, but they did not let go of each other. Lan looked at him and saw that he was smiling. His face was absolutely radiant, and Lan knew without a doubt that hers was as well.

"I'll… take that as a yes," she said softly.

Quatre nodded. "Yes."

Lan leaned in and kissed him again, and the graveyard around them seemed to fade away. Nothing else mattered in that moment except for the two of them, and Lan wanted it to last for as long as possible.

….

Nazara sighed as he cleared yet another report from his computer. Desk work _really _wasn't how he preferred to pass the time, but ever since he'd arrived at Arzachel Base it seemed that the tedious bureaucracy of running both Phantom Pain and prepping the larger Alliance military for war had consumed his life.

At least he'd been able to make measurable progress in a few key areas. Upon his arrival his first order of business had been to review the base's inventory, particularly its hidden stockpiles. After confirming that everything was in satisfactory order his next task had been to communicate with the various fleet commanders to make sure that the right units were on standby and ready for when the time came to mobilize. To an extent this was still an ongoing process; Djibril's orders to keep everything under wraps and concealed from ZAFT made it a tricky business. Still, things were moving along at a reasonable pace, and Nazara was sure that when the time came the fleet would be ready to move out.

Matters were a bit more mixed when it came to his personal organization. Phantom Pain's resources had taken a beating ever since the raid at Armory One, thanks in no small part to Wing Zero and the four new mobile suits that had shown up shortly after its arrival. Reorganizing and refilling the ranks with personnel and equipment transfers was a time consuming but necessary task. He'd made progress in that area as well, but not enough for him to be satisfied at this point.

In between his administrative duties he'd also been monitoring the base's technical and research staff. After a series of discussions he had hammered out with them what he wanted to be done to his Nosferatu in order to make sure it was ready to fight Wing Zero again. They'd assured him that the work he'd requested was feasible and could be done, but it was taking them longer than he'd hoped for to actually turn theory into practice. Nazara was growing impatient with them, but he was able to keep things in perspective; the modifications he was asking for were complex, so some delay was perhaps to be expected.

Finally, he'd been monitoring news and intelligence reports regarding the political scene down on Earth. Djibril was in charge of ginning up support for the drive to war, and a big part of that would be the inquiry that was supposedly being handled by the Atlantic Federation Senate. The very thought made Nazara smirk; the 'inquiry' was really such in name only. It was really just a piece of theatre, a means to justify renewed conflict and a second shot at annihilating the Coordinators once and for all.

_Window dressing, nothing more_, he mused, _but it's a necessary formality. The people have grown a little more wary since the Bloody Valentine War, after all… but not enough to completely overcome the fear and anger that we've nurtured within them for all these years. If they feel that they have legitimate reason to act upon that animosity towards the Coordinators they will do so; our precious Senate's 'inquiry' will offer them the perfect cover to do so._

Enough time had gone by for the foolish masses to believe that a serious inquiry had been made into the events of what had become known as the Break The World Incident. He was sure that Djibril's mind was on the same track. It wouldn't be too much longer before the Senate would produce it's 'results', which in reality would simply be whatever was fed to them by the executive branch, which in turn received its marching orders from LOGOS and Blue Cosmos.

Nazara's only area of concern was the Orb Union. If they could get the island nation's backing it would go a long way towards both legitimizing a new war and shortening the process of purging the Coordinators from the Earth Sphere once and for all. The main obstacle to that was its Chief Representative; it wasn't exactly a state secret that Cagalli was no friend of Blue Cosmos. Djibril claimed to have found the answer in the form of the Seiran clan's ambitions, and while Nazara had his doubts he knew that ultimately that part of the plan was outside his scope of responsibility. If it worked out then all would be well. If it failed then they would simply have to adjust their plans accordingly.

Adjusting his monitor, he brought up a simple map of the Earth Sphere. He zoomed in on the region composed of the Moon, L1 and L2. This was where the preparations to crush the Coordinators once and for all were underway, clandestine but in the making all the same. Sure, once the moment came to fully mobilize and strike their enemies would realize what was up and move to counter, but with what the Earth Alliance forces had up their sleeves Nazara knew that this time they would succeed where they had previously failed.

_I'm so glad that you and your friends went down to the surface, Heero Yuy_, he thought, a cruel smile forming on his face, _You'll be too far away to act when the time comes. All you'll be able to do is sit in Orb and watch as we burn the L5 colonies to ashes. I'm sure that we'll have to contend with you eventually, but for the opening act you will be powerless to interfere._

_ For the preservation of our blue and pure world…_

_ …and our seizure of absolute power over the Earth Sphere!_

**Preview for next time!**

_With the release of the findings of the Atlantic Federation inquiry regarding the Break The World Incident, tensions begin to rapidly escalate between the Earth Alliance and the PLANTs. Caught between growing pressure and veiled threats from both superpowers, Cagalli tries to keep the Orb Union's status as a mediator and neutral third party viable, but her efforts are undermined by Unato and Yuna Seiran. Sensing that their vacation is coming to a close, Heero, Murrue, and the rest of Terminal prepare for the worst case scenario. However, when the Earth Alliance issues an impossible ultimatum to the PLANTs, even the legendary Gundam pilots and their allies may prove powerless to stop the world from plunging into full scale war. Next time, on "Destiny's Call", Episode Seven: Freefall._

"_The hour is later than you think."_

_Saruman the White, "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"._

**Author's notes: **First of all, a huge thanks to all of you for your patience. Seriously, I can thank you guys enough for putting up with my writing style and the pace of chapter updates. I'll do all I can to make the next chapter shorter than this one!

Special thanks to Venas; your idea for the memorial in Orb that you posted with your review of Episode 31 of _Journey To A New Battlefield_ was the basis for the memorial that I came up with in this chapter. Hope you liked it!

By the way, that bit about Wufei once having a wife and some of that information regarding Quatre's rather large family? I didn't make it up. Check out the Gundam Wing: Episode Zero manga; that stuff's canon, folks!

Until next time! Please review!


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Notes: **Well, it looks like I was able to cut down on the length a little bit for this chapter. Just a little… hey, don't judge me! I tried, okay?

No combat here; this chapter's really about setting the stage for the start of the Second Bloody Valentine War. Trust me, the battles aren't too far away now, and I think you'll find some interesting tidbits tucked away in here to make up for the lack of explosions.

No music pieces for this chapter; figured I'd save that for when the fireworks start.

Enjoy!

**Episode Seven: Freefall**

Slipping on a pair of black mixed-martial-arts gloves, Murrue looked at Heero and smiled. "Are you ready?"

"Are you?" he replied from the other side of the mat.

The two of them were in the workout area of Terminal's estate. Along the walls were the latest in exercise equipment, while the middle of the room was wide open and had several blue exercise mats lain down. Heero and Murrue had joined several of them together to create an improvised sparring floor.

Murrue smiled. "You bet."

Taking a quick glance over at a wall-mounted mirror, Murrue was pleased by her appearance. Right now she was only wearing black sweat-pants and a matching pair of shoes and a workout bra, so her well-maintained figure was on prominent display. Murrue put a lot of work into keeping herself in shape, and she was glad to see that it was paying off.

Across the mat, Heero was also dressed entirely in black, although in his case he wore a tank-top instead of what Murrue had on for obvious reasons. Just like her he had also just put on a pair of sparring gloves. This was one of Murrue's favorite workout routines, especially since it was one she could do together with Heero. He never went all out against her, of course, but at the same time he always made sure to put her through her paces.

The two of them stepped out onto the mats and raised their fists. Murrue was raring to go; she wanted to see how much she'd improved since their last match.

"All right," she said, "Let's do this!"

"Ladies first," said Heero, and he gave her a small smirk that Murrue took as a gesture of challenge.

Murrue accepted the invitation and moved in, kicking things off with a right jab. It was a punch that Heero easily blocked, but Murrue didn't let up. She immediately followed up with a left hook, and then another right punch, doing her best to keep Heero on the defensive.

The Gundam pilot ducked, weaved, and blocked, never letting her land a solid hit. This was the way their sparring matches always started out; Heero would let her take the initiative and stay on the offensive for a bit, evaluating her before countering. It was really a testament to his level of control and discipline that he was able to refrain from seizing any opening to switch from defense to offense until he had a chance to judge her technique.

Still, Murrue didn't want him to hold back as much as he normally did. She wanted to be tested, and that wouldn't happen if Heero just continued to block and dodge. Murrue knew that she would have to press harder to get him to counter and start giving her a real fight.

She threw another right hook, but instead of following it with her left she dropped down and made a sweeping kick to try and trip her sparring partner. It didn't work; Heero had already started rolling to the side even as he blocked her punch, and he was able to avoid her kick with a few centimeters to spare. As he came up Murrue made a jab with her left, but Heero's fists were already raised and he was able to intercept the punch.

"I know you're patient," she said in between punches, "but you don't need to let me have my way for this long, Heero."

"Maybe you've improved," Heero replied as he continued to block her strikes, "and maybe I'm unable to counter because of it."

Murrue smirked as he ducked another one of her punches. "You can try to flatter me, but I know you too well, Heero."

Heero chuckled as he blocked her right hook. "That you do."

This time he actually moved to counter, striking with his left fist. It was fast, but as Murrue blocked it she knew that he had held back considerably. Still, it was enough to raise her pulse a bit, and she smiled as she threw a punch back at him.

"That's more like it," she said as she ducked to avoid another one of his counterattacks.

"Good," Heero replied, "I need to keep you from getting overconfident somehow."

Murrue laughed as she made a high kick, only for Heero to block it with his arm. "Bring it on!"

Heero dropped low in a mirror image of her earlier attempt to trip him. Instead of rolling like he had, Murrue jumped at the last moment so his leg passed harmlessly beneath her. As she came back down she already had her fist up in a guard position, and it was a good thing she did; Heero had instantly gotten back up and moved to attack again.

"Now that's better!" she said as she raised her arms to block his punch.

Heero smirked as he kept up his offensive. "You're coaching me, now? I think you're forgetting who the teacher is and who the student is."

Murrue laughed as she countered with a right jab. "Well, if I'm good enough, why not?"

"You want to surpass me?" said Heero as he blocked her strike, "Take your best shot."

Murrue smiled. "You asked for it!"

She pressed her assault, punching and kicking as fast as she could. Of course, she still couldn't land a hit on her boyfriend, but that was okay. Her talk of surpassing him was jest, and they both knew it. Murrue could train with Heero the rest of her life and never be his better when it came to hand-to-hand combat, and she was quite all right with that. It was enough for her to continue improving her skills so she could keep having these matches with him. If nothing else it was certainly a fun activity to do as a couple.

"So," she said as she made a left hook that Heero dodged, "I've been doing some thinking."

"That's healthy," Heero commented while blocking her follow-up right punch.

"Oh, be quiet and listen," said Murrue with a chuckle as she slowed up a bit so they could talk and spar at the same time, "It's about the _Minerva_. I want to go to the dock where she's at tomorrow and check her out."

"We've already got plenty of eyes on her thanks to Erica's observers in the work crews at the dock," Heero replied, "There's no need for you to join them."

"It would just be for one day," said Murrue, "I know you gave us plenty of intelligence on her with your report, but I still want to see her with my own eyes."

"It's an unnecessary risk," said Heero, his eyes narrowing as they continued to trade blows.

"Not really," Murrue replied, "As the Captain of a large warship myself I think that seeing a potential rival first hand would be valuable to me."

Heero nodded. "All right, then. Want me to tag along?"

Murrue smiled and shook her head, touched by his concern even as she declined his offer. "I appreciate the thought, but I'll be fine. My face isn't really that well known to ZAFT, but yours is. Depending on what happens in the near future you may end up working with the _Minerva_'s crew again, so it'd be good if they didn't see you disguised as an Orb dockworker."

"Good point," said Heero as he ducked a punch from her, "Will you go in with the morning crew?"

"Yes," said Murrue as she kept up her offensive, "Is that a problem?"

Heero shook his head while continuing to block and dodge her punches. "No. Just be careful, okay?"

Murrue nodded. "I will. So, how will you keep yourself occupied while I'm away?"

"I'm sure I'll find something," Heero replied, "Between the rest of Terminal and my old friends it's not as though I lack for company."

Murrue smiled as she started kicking at him again. "Good point."

She pressed her assault, mixing up punches and kicks to try to put him off balance. Of course, Heero wasn't about to let her trip him up so easily. He bobbed, rolled, and weaved, always seeming to be one step ahead of her. Murrue was really working up a sweat now; she would definitely need a shower after this.

"By the way," she said, "did Erica ever get back to you about the data your old friends gave her?"

Heero nodded as he continued to fend off Murrue's attacks. "Yeah. It was earlier this morning, actually."

"What did she say?" asked Murrue.

"Well," Heero replied as he countered, forcing her to block and let him seize the initiative, "the method that they used to get over to this world is perfectly replicable. We have all the necessary technology to build the same device Howard did for them, and when the time comes we can either use Wing Zero Albion's Twin Buster Rifle or the Buster Cannons of the _Archangel _or the _Dominion _to act as a catalyst for the detonation. As long as the rest of us maintain our distance, the only ones who will go through the portal will be the four who came over here."

Murrue nodded as she evaded a flurry of kicks and punches from him. "That's good. How long will it take her to get everything set up?"

"That's the hard part," said Heero as he kept up his assault, "Between assembling the proper specialists and resources in secret and keeping the device's construction under wrap it'll be far from an overnight job. Things are even more complicated when you consider the current political situation; if the Earth Alliance or ZAFT catch wind of us building something like that they could easily mistake it for a weapon and launch an attack. We're talking months of work to pull everything off, and that's being optimistic."

"Got it," said Murrue as she blocked a punch and countered with one of her own, "Is there a place that she'd be able to do the work in secret?"

"One of the resource satellites at L3 should suffice," Heero replied as he went back on the defensive, "The real trick's getting everything we need out there without raising suspicion. I think we'll have to take a piecemeal approach to this."

"Well, there's no hurry," said Murrue while pressing her attack, "After all, we might need your friends help in the near future. Having the other four Gundams on our side could be a game changer if the Alliance really is trying to start another war."

"Three," Heero corrected, "As of right now Wufei hasn't agreed to work with us, after all."

"Oh, come on," said Murrue as she kept punching and kicking at him, "I can't exactly see him siding with the Alliance. From what you've told me about him I doubt that their goals would fit well with his idea of justice."

"I never said that he'd support the Alliance," Heero replied while evading her blows, "but he did remain with ZAFT after the battle, remember? I'll need to talk to him to get a better idea of where his head's at, but the fact that he stuck with the _Minerva _rather than join us after the fight does have me concerned."

Murrue's eyes widened slightly; for him to admit something like that, even if it was just to her, was quite rare. "What do you think he'll do?"

Heero shook his head. "I'm not sure. He's unpredictable… even for a Gundam pilot."

"Should we try to reach out to him?" Murrue asked as she eased up her offensive, "Bring him into the fold now while things are still calm?"

"We can't make the approach while he remains with the _Minerva_," said Heero, "There's too much risk involved. He may also consider it to be us trying to manipulate him, and his pride won't let him stand for that. For now, I think that observation is our best course of action."

"Hard to do that when he's on the _Minerva _and the rest of you are here," Murrue commented.

"Perhaps," Heero replied, "but, as you said, there's the chance that we could end up working with the crew of the _Minerva _again if a new war breaks out, depending on the circumstances. That may present an opening to gauge his current stance and what he may be planning to do."

Murrue nodded. "Well, he's your friend. You know him better than I do. Whatever's up with him, I'm sure you'll find a way to sort things out."

"Yeah," said Heero as he countered and switched over to the offensive, "although… he's not the only pilot on the _Minerva_ that I'm worried about."

"Really?" said Murrue as she blocked his attacks, "Who's the other one?"

"The Impulse's pilot," said Heero, "Shinn Asuka."

"You mentioned him before," said Murrue, her eyes narrowing, "He's actually from Orb, right?"

Heero nodded. "Yeah. His family died in the attack on the Elysium colony in the last war."

"Right," said Murrue, "I do recall you mentioning that. Under those circumstances I can definitely see why he moved to the PLANTs. You also said that he's not particularly fond of his homeland, right?"

"Yes," said Heero, "It's a grudge that I think he's carried ever since the war. I'd say that he holds Cagalli's government as responsible for his family's death."

Murrue sighed as she evaded his attacks. "She doesn't deserve that. Cagalli did everything she could for her people during the war, but I suppose he doesn't see it that way. So, why are you worried about him?"

"He has a lot of potential," said Heero, "The Impulse is basically an improved version of the Strike. It's highly versatile and capable of being a decisive factor on the battlefield. As its pilot, Shinn has a great deal of power at his fingertips. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a full-fledged Gundam, but it's just a few steps away from that point. As Shinn's abilities grow it will become a more effective weapon, but in his hands it's a ticking time bomb. Any mobile suit is with him at the helm."

"What makes you say that?" asked Murrue as she blocked and countered, retaking the initiative.

"He hasn't found closure with his past," Heero replied, "He has some good motives; he wants to protect his friends and the people as a whole. However, much of what drives him is rage against both his past and the world. He hates the Alliance for murdering his family and Orb for not protecting his family. All that anger clouds his judgment; he's the perfect attack dog for anyone capable of recognizing and manipulating that fact."

"I can think of at least one person capable of taking advantage of that," said Murrue as she punched and kicked at him.

Heero nodded while blocking her attacks. "Chairman Durandal. I'm willing to bet that he played a considerable role in making Shinn a Red and getting him assigned to pilot the Impulse. Shinn's got the talent for it, but not the temperament; his trainers should've recognized that."

"Do you think that he had any role in influencing the position of the other ZAFT pilots operating from the _Minerva_?" asked Murrue.

"I don't know," Heero replied, "Both Lunamaria and Rey seem calmer than Shinn, and their piloting skills are solid considering that they have little combat experience. It's possible that the Chairman had nothing to do with either of them becoming Reds or becoming pilots operating from the new battleship."

Murrue nodded. "I know you and Shinn got off to a rocky start, but if you two do end up working together do you think that there's any way that you can talk some sense into him?"

"We'll see," said Heero.

It was at that moment that he caught her latest punch and threw her to the mat. In a single fluid motion not only had he taken down Murrue but he had also pinned her. Murrue sighed and smiled; she couldn't get out of this if she wanted to.

"I guess that's it for this round," she said as she looked up at him, "It took you long enough, Heero."

He smirked. "I wanted to let you have some fun first. You really do get better every time we do this, you know?"

Murrue smiled as she leaned up and kissed him. "Thanks. I was hoping you'd say that."

Heero released her and stood up. He offered her his hand, and Murrue accepted it and let him help her to her feet.

"Well," she said, "that was fun. It's been a while since we've done that."

Heero nodded. "It has. We should get cleaned up."

"Yeah," said Murrue as she looked down at herself, "We worked up quite a sweat. I think that does it for today's workout, wouldn't you say?"

"Yes," Heero replied, "Want to grab some lunch?"

Murrue leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. "Sounds good. Let's go!"

….

Mu La Flaga leaned back in his chair as the last target on the screen disappeared in a ball of flame. "And that wraps up that exercise."

He wiped a bead of sweat from his brow and flattened a wrinkle in his flight suit as a female voice came over the Tallgeese Kai's radio. "Simulation complete. Nice job, Mister La Flaga!"

The Hawk of Endymion smirked at the praise of the overseeing technician. "Thanks, Jane, but it wasn't that hard. By the way, is Natarle out there?"

"She just walked in," the young woman replied, "She's heading for us right now."

La Flaga smiled. "All right, then. Can't keep her waiting!"

He hit a key and opened up the mobile suit's hatch. Stepping out of his machine, he gave a nod and a smile towards Jane Robins, who was sitting nearby monitoring a portable console. She was a woman in her early twenties with mid-length brown hair and light blue eyes. She'd defected to Orb during the last war just after the attack on the Elysium colony, and she'd decided to stay on with Terminal when the war was over. Her technical and computer skills had found her a place on board the _Dominion_ as part of the crews that oversaw mobile suit maintenance as well as keeping pilot simulation programs up to date, and she'd been assigned to the group charged with working on the Tallgeese Kai.

"Try to make the next batch a little more evasive," he said, "It's hard for me to really go all out when they're just flying standard combat maneuvers. Not a whole lot of fun there."

Jane nodded. "I'll do what I can, but that program utilized all of our most recent intel regarding the performance of the Alliance's Dagger-Ls and their pilot protocols. You've stressed the need for realism in the past, so I tried to tailor the program to your specifications."

La Flaga chuckled. "I think you're doing your job too well, Miss Robins. That was a pretty decent simulation of a fight with Atlantic Federation grunts, but you should start shooting a little higher now. I'm sure the Alliance still has _some _good pilots left, after all, and I bet I'll be mixing it up with them sooner or later."

"Very well," said Jane with a smile, "I'll see if I can work up something more challenging for your next bout. Perhaps I'll throw the Gaia in there; it is the only one of the stolen prototypes that survived the events from Armory One to the fight at the colony ruins and remains in Alliance hands, after all."

"Good," said La Flaga as he smiled back at her, "Can't wait to see what you come up with. Later!"

La Flaga then moved to meet Natarle, his smile growing as she approached him. She was dressed in her Orb Captain's uniform, and La Flaga would readily admit that she made military attire look _good_. A uniform wasn't meant to draw attention to the wearer's physique, but in La Flaga's eyes Natarle's was snug in all the right places.

"Couldn't wait for me to wrap things up down here, eh?" he said, flashing her his characteristic cocky grin.

Natarle rolled her eyes, but she still returned his smile as she kissed him on the cheek. "You are so full of yourself."

La Flaga chuckled. "Hey, it's part of my charm!"

"Right," Natarle replied before nodding at his mobile suit, "Enjoying your training?"

La Flaga nodded. "It was a good run. Hopefully the next one will be a little more interesting."

"You know," she said, "you really didn't need your flight suit; we are still down on the surface, after all."

La Flaga shrugged. "Yeah, but I like to keep the conditions as realistic as possible. That includes suiting up."

"Well, you need to get cleaned up and changed," said Natarle as her eyebrows narrowed, "You stink."

"Oh, come on!" said La Flaga, "I didn't work up _that _much of a sweat!"

"Your armpits say otherwise," Natarle shot back as she shoved him towards the nearest exit, "Take a shower, Mu. I'll be in the mess."

La Flaga smiled. "See you there!"

….

_Man, that felt good_, thought the Hawk of Endymion as he finished combing his hair, _I guess Natarle was right about me needing that shower._

He was just about done cleaning up down in the _Dominion_'s pilots' locker room. He'd swapped out his flight suit for the Morgenroete attire that had become an almost unofficial second uniform of sorts for Terminal. It hadn't taken him too long to clean up, in part because he was eager to sit down with Natarle and enjoy a late lunch with her.

They'd actually both just returned to the black battleship the day before. The two of them had gotten plenty of quality time together before that, but Natarle had decided that the two of them had needed to cut their shore leave a bit short. La Flaga understood where she was coming from; she wanted to make sure her warship was ready to go at a moment's notice, and it was as good a time as any for the Hawk of Endymion to get a few more simulation runs in.

"Well," he said, smirking at the mirror, "can't keep a good girl waiting."

It only took him a few minutes to get from the locker room to the mess. Natarle was easy to spot; she was the only person in the room.

"Not much of a crowd," he said as he dished up and joined her at her table.

Natarle nodded. "It's after the main lunch break for the shift."

"I bet you planned it like that, didn't you?" La Flaga replied with a smile.

Natarle smirked. "Maybe I did."

She'd become so much more relaxed since they'd started dating at the end of the last war, and that was something that La Flaga was quite grateful for. As much as he liked her disciplinarian side, he loved seeing her loosen up and trade barbs with him. She could give him a wicked smirk when she put her mind to it, and when she genuinely smiled it was a thing of beauty. She'd proven herself to be very quick witted, and when they were off the clock La Flaga had learned to beware of her sharp tongue and cool sarcasm.

"Well, you won't hear me complaining," said La Flaga, "Always nice to have a meal without an audience."

"Agreed," Natarle replied, "and I bet you're hungry after that training round."

La Flaga chuckled. "A little bit. It was nice, but not something that I'd work up too much of an appetite over. Now, if I could have a sim match against some of Heero's old crew, that'd be a different story."

Natarle shook her head. "Pilots. You're all the same when it comes right down to it; you just gotta find out who's the best."

La Flaga shrugged as he picked up his sandwich. "Hey, it's who we are. Doesn't matter what rank you are or what kind of machine you fly; you gotta find out who's the strongest one way or another."

Natarle rolled her eyes. "It's all about your egos. I swear, sometimes you flyboys act like it's still gym class or something."

"Might as well be," he replied as he took a bite, "Sure, our job's dangerous, but that doesn't mean we can't look for thrills and fun in the process."

"Chew your food, then talk," said Natarle before she started chowing down.

La Flaga gave her a mock salute. "Aye, Captain."

They spent a few minutes focusing on their food before Natarle spoke again. "How do you think Tallgeese Kai matches up compared to the new mobile suits?"

"Which ones?" asked La Flaga, "Ours or those of our enemies?"

"I was thinking the Alliance and ZAFT," said Natarle.

La Flaga nodded. "Gotcha. Well, it may be over two years old, but it can still hold its own with the best that our prospective foes have to offer. Based on what I saw up in orbit I'm pretty sure it's faster than anything ZAFT or those Alliance black ops guys have, except for maybe that unit with the gun-drones; Heero did say that that machine appeared to be nuclear powered, after all."

"I see," said Natarle, her eyes narrowing in thought, "What about in terms of firepower?"

"Tallgeese Kai's focus is more on speed and precision than raw power," said La Flaga, "I mean, its beam rifle and Vulcan Cannons are pretty basic weaponry, after all. The Planet Defensors give it an edge defensively, and the smoke grenade launchers in the legs are good for setting up surprise attacks or covering a retreat, but if you just look at it in terms of pure firepower then it's pretty easy to find units that have the Tallgeese Kai beat. However, all of their heavy weaponry is useless if they can't hit me."

Natarle smiled. "That's true. Tallgeese Kai may not be Wing Zero Albion or the Freedom, but it is quite the agile machine."

"Yeah," said La Flaga, "Honestly, I'm not all that worried about any of the new Alliance or ZAFT models right now. They're not too different from what we faced in the last war."

He took a sip from his water bottle before speaking again. "That being said… there is something that's been bothering me ever since the orbital battle."

Natarle's eyes widened slightly. "Really? What is it?"

"The pilots," he said, "Two of them, to be exact. I think one was with ZAFT and the other was with the black ops group trying to disrupt the drill operation."

"What machines were they using?" asked Natarle.

"I think one was flying the white ZAKU Phantom," La Flaga replied, "As for the other… if my hunch is right, he was flying the machine with the gun-drones."

"Why those two?" she asked, "I mean, I get the one with the gun-drone machine; anyone who can survive a fight against Heero is not to be taken lightly. But the one in the white ZAKU Phantom too?"

La Flaga nodded. "I know it sounds weird at first glance. However… I think those two are linked."

Natarle shook her head. "Sorry, but I'm having a hard time seeing how they could be connected. I mean, one's a ZAFT pilot and the other appears to be part of an Alliance black ops group. That's about as far apart as you can get, really."

"Not quite," said La Flaga, his eyes narrowing, "I was an Alliance ace and Creuset fought for ZAFT, but we still wound up being connected, remember?"

Natarle's face paled. "No, wait… you mean…"

"Yeah," said La Flaga grimly, "That… _feeling _that I used to get when fighting Creuset… well, I had it again during the orbital battle. Twice, actually, although the second wasn't exactly the same as with _him_… but I've felt _that one _before too."

"What are you talking about?" asked Natarle.

La Flaga sighed. "It's strange, but I get the exact same vibe from that white ZAKU Phantom that I did from Creuset during the last war. As for the pilot of the gun-barrel unit, I get a similar feeling, but something's off about it… and it matches a feeling I had during the final battle at L5. It came from a pilot that Heero wound up fighting; the one that had that unique Striker pack that combined the Launcher, Sword, and Aile configurations."

"Wait a minute," said Natarle, "I thought Heero mauled that machined in the final battle. You mean the pilot survived?"

"Looks like it," said La Flaga, "I'm not sure how, but he's still alive, and he's back on the battlefield."

Natarle looked down. "So… we've got two more Al Da Flaga clones to deal with now, huh? As if we didn't have enough on our plates…"

"Not necessarily," said La Flaga, "Based on the vibe I got from the ZAFT pilot I wouldn't be surprised if _he's _an Al Da Flaga clone. However, the feeling I got from the Alliance black ops pilot was different. He might be connected, but I don't think he's exactly the same as Creuset."

"Have you told the others about this?" asked Natarle.

La Flaga shook his head. "Not yet. I figured I'd run it by Kira first before the others; he mentioned that he was able to sense Creuset during the final battle like I was. I don't know if he could feel those other two in the orbital battle like I could, but it's worth a shot."

Natarle nodded. "Does it matter if he could or couldn't? I mean, you could, and you were having those sensations well before Kira manifested that ability."

"That's true," said La Flaga, "I guess it'll make me feel a little more confident; always nice to get a second opinion. Beyond that, though, whether he could sense them or not is irrelevant."

Natarle's eyes narrowed. "Should we plan a trip out to L4? The Mendel colony did survive the war, after all. We never took the time to dig through that lab you and Kira encountered there. Maybe there's some evidence hidden there that can help us get a better idea about who those two are."

"That's not a bad idea," La Flaga replied, "but we might have to put it on hold for a while. With the way things are now, I don't think it'd be smart to send any manpower out on what could end up being a wild goose chase."

Natarle sighed. "Good point. The news from this morning has me worried."

La Flaga raised an eyebrow. "What did I miss?"

"There was an announcement in the Atlantic Federation," said Natarle, "It sounds like their inquiry about the Break The World Incident is almost wrapped up. From what I heard, it seems they'll be releasing their findings any day now."

"You've got to be kidding me," said La Flaga, "It's barely been a week since they started the damn thing. That's way too soon to have conclusions from an official inquiry ready for public disclosure."

"I know that," said Natarle with a dark look in her eyes, "but the general public doesn't."

La Flaga grimaced, knowing what she was getting at. "Damn it. They're using it just as a piece of showmanship, aren't they?"

Natarle nodded. "Exactly. It's a prop; just something to offer their coming actions legitimacy. The people as a whole don't understand politics well enough to realize how these sorts of things are supposed to work, or what kind of timetable to expect. Things haven't exactly been helped by the Atlantic Federation's media outlets. They all toe the line of the ruling conservative faction…"

"And that faction's in league with Blue Cosmos," La Flaga finished for her, glaring down at the table, "Son of a bitch!"

"I couldn't agree more," said Natarle with a sigh, "You should see the stories that they run these days. It's absolutely disgusting."

"I'm surprised you can stomach that stuff," said La Flaga, "I think I'd go crazy trying to wrap my head around all the bullshit they feed their audience."

"I don't watch the actual shows," Natarle replied, "I just check clips when I browse online articles. It's the only way I can learn about what they're saying without going insane."

"I can't even bring myself to look at that much," said La Flaga, "To think that our old country has sunk that low."

Natarle shook her head. "Looking back, I think it was that low even while we were serving it. We just never really paid much attention to the politics until after Alaska, I think."

La Flaga chuckled ruefully. "Yeah. Your perspective changes when your own country tries to stab you in the back."

Natarle looked down. "We should've caught on a lot sooner. The fact that they were willing to nuke a colony, and an agricultural one to boot, should've been a huge red flag for us. We were on the wrong side right from the start."

"Hey," La Flaga replied, "It's not like ZAFT wound up being any better. They did try to return the favor and then some with GENESIS, remember?"

Natarle nodded. "I know. I think Orb was about as close to a 'good guy' as you could get in that war."

La Flaga smiled. "Hey, don't leave out our little group! Once we ditched the Alliance, Orb was the natural place for us to go."

"I'm not leaving you and the others out," said Natarle, "but… well, it took me quite a bit longer to join you guys."

Her sense of guilt was all too obvious for La Flaga; he knew that she'd never quite forgiven herself for sticking with the Atlantic Federation for as long as she had during the war. La Flaga could understand where she was coming from, but in his opinion Natarle was being too hard on herself.

He reached across the table and grabbed her hand, smiling as he did so. "You made the right call in the end. That's what matters."

Natarle returned his smile. "Thanks, Mu. Getting to see Heero kill Azrael on the bridge of my ship certainly was a nice way to mark my change of allegiance."

"Yeah," said Mu with a laugh, "and you spacing his corpse was the icing on the cake."

"That was the best way to handle the disposal," Natarle replied, "It would've been practically impossible for his most devoted followers to find his body and build some sort of sick memorial for him. By now his corpse has probably burned up in the atmosphere. Either that or it's drifting out towards Mars or the sun."

La Flaga nodded. "Well, I say good riddance regardless of which way he's floating. I still can't believe he managed to convince so many people to go along with his damn crusade."

"Yes," said Natarle softly, "and from the looks of things it appears his crusade didn't follow him to the grave."

La Flaga sighed. "I get that the guy was rich and well connected, but was that really all it took for him to influence the Atlantic Federation's policy regarding Coordinators? It feels like there should be more to it than that."

"Well," Natarle replied, "like I mentioned earlier, the media in that country have played Blue Cosmos's tune almost flawlessly. That's before, during, and after the war. There's a big market for that kind of fear and hatred… bigger than I'd care to think about."

The Hawk of Endymion shook his head. "It still doesn't make sense to me. Why are so many of our former countrymen willing to go along with that stuff? I mean, I get that it's not all of them, but it's enough to keep the conservative faction in power, right? That's millions of people voting for an agenda that amounts to one giant crime against humanity!"

"Believe me, I know," said Natarle, "but the voters don't see it that way. Or rather… they might _choose _not to see it that way."

"But _why_?" asked La Flaga, "I mean, I can't wrap my head around going along with stuff like that. It makes me want to throw up! How can so many people swallow that?"

"The debate over the ethics of creating Coordinators was always a contentious one," said Natarle, "but it got insane in the Atlantic Federation. Hell, I think it got worse than the argument over abortion."

"No kidding," said La Flaga, "except instead of firebombing clinics and killing doctors these psychopaths are blowing up entire colonies and starting world wars. Talk about one hell of an escalation."

Natarle sighed. "I don't know why, but ever since the existence of Coordinators was revealed and their numbers expanded the Atlantic Federation's taken a sharp reactionary turn. Now it's to the point that their rhetoric and crimes are on par with the worst authoritarian regimes of the 20th century. The liberal opposition to the current government's been completely marginalized by intimidation and assassination; our homeland's become a police state that offers up the illusion of democracy. It would take a serious popular uprising to change the status quo now."

"And there's not much we can do to kick that off on our end," said La Flaga, "We're good at pulling off the impossible, but we've got our limits."

Natarle nodded. "Yes. Orb's our real sphere of influence for the moment, but even here our power only counts for so much. We don't exactly have a lot of pull over in North America."

"Yeah," said La Flaga, "It'd be nice if we had the same sort of network there that we do in the PLANTs thanks to Eric's network and that of the Clyne Faction."

Natarle shook her head. "It was never going to happen. The new government in the PLANTs was relatively forgiving of people who defected to us during the war if they returned to L5, but the Atlantic Federation's policy was one of zero tolerance. For any of our friends and allies to return there would've been a death sentence. It's thanks to that policy that we don't have any real connections within the Atlantic Federation government or armed forces to rely on for intelligence and influence."

"Which means that we're flying blind when it comes to them," said La Flaga with a sigh, "I hate that."

"You're not the only one," said Natarle, "It's driving me crazy. Being on the inside in the last war was bad enough. I had access, but they still kept me in the dark about quite a bit. I think the only reason I learned as much as I did was because I was the Captain of Azrael's flagship."

"Too bad he didn't leave behind any juicy files on the _Dominion_," said Mu, "If he had we might've learned what other plans he had in the works and if any of them apply to what's going on these days."

Natarle nodded. "It would've been nice. Unfortunately we didn't catch that lucky break. If Azrael had any secret files I imagine he had the servers for them either on Luna or down on the Earth. He may have kept tabs with both locations from the battleship, but he didn't leave anything that we could use to gain access to that kind of data. He was a ruthless psychopath, but it seems that he was rather paranoid on his flagship."

La Flaga chuckled. "Not paranoid enough. We still managed to get aboard and kill him, after all."

Natarle smiled. "True, although I believe that was more of a brute force effort."

La Flaga grinned. "Hey, what do you expect? Brute force is what we mobile suit pilots do best!"

Her smile turned into a smirk. "Well, I can't argue with that."

La Flaga nodded. "Got that right!"

"Don't let it go to your head, Mu," Natarle replied with a chuckle, "We're gonna need a lot more than just brute force to get through what's coming our way."

"I know," said La Flaga, still smiling, "I'm not saying that whatever's ahead for us is going to be easy to deal with, but we've grown quite a bit from our experience in the last war. We'll do the same thing we did last time; adapt, make a plan, and fight like hell."

Natarle nodded. "Sounds good to me."

….

"Ah," said Lunamaria as she left the _Minerva_'s mess hall, "That really hit the spot!"

"If you say so," said her younger sister, who was following in her wake.

It was late afternoon, and the two of them were currently off duty and spending some time together. Lunamaria knew that she hadn't been paying as much attention to Meyrin as she should've been lately, and since they were still stuck at the Orb dock she was trying to make up for that. That had been a case of easier-said-than-done; her sister had seemed a bit down over the past few days.

The reason for that hadn't been too hard for Lunamaria to figure out. While she would admit to being a little preoccupied with Wufei, Lunamaria hadn't missed that Meyrin had been distracted by another one of the strange but handsome pilots that they had met at Armory One. Unlike Lunamaria, however, Meyrin's Gundam pilot of choice had not remained on board the _Minerva _following Operation Redemption.

_There's been no word of Duo or those other three pilots since the orbital battle_, she thought, _I know that the Minerva's sensors tracked them descending to Earth after the fight, but I've heard nothing about them since then. I hope they're doing okay… wherever they are._

While Lunamaria was curious as to where Heero and the others had gone off to, that was only a secondary concern to her. Wufei was still on the _Minerva_, and while Lunamaria had gotten some hints from him as to whom he really was it still wasn't nearly enough to satisfy her. If anything his cryptic words had only served to fuel her hunger to learn more about him even more so than before. She was much more focused on him than the other Gundam pilots, almost to the point that she had forgotten about Meyrin and the pilot that _she _was interested in.

"So," she said, figuring now was as good a time as any to broach the subject she knew was bothering her little sister, "did you hear anything about our missing friends and their machines when you were up on the bridge today?"

Meyrin shook her head, looking a little gloomy. "No, nothing."

Lunamaria sighed. "Well, it's not like they were assigned to the ship like we are. I'm still surprised that Wufei stuck around."

"I know that they're not part of ZAFT," said Meyrin, "but they still fought alongside us and helped us save the world. They just left without saying anything. Not even goodbye…"

Lunamaria put her hand on her sister's shoulder. "Look, I'm sure that they had their reasons. They were only with us for about a week, anyway. You shouldn't get so hung up over something like this, Meyrin."

"That's easy for _you _to say," Meyrin grumbled, "Wufei's still here."

Lunamaria raised an eyebrow. "Hey, what's _that _supposed to mean?"

"Oh, come on," said Meyrin, "What do you _think_ it means? You like him!"

Lunamaria's eyes widened, and try as she might she could not keep a hint of red from flashing over her face. "_Like _him? You've _got _to be joking!"

"Really?" said Meyrin skeptically, "Then why have you been spending so much time with him since he arrived on the ship?"

Lunamaria shook her head. "Look, it's not like that!"

"I don't believe you," said Meyrin, her eyes narrowing, "Don't forget who you're talking to, Luna. I know you better than anyone else."

"Well, you're wrong this time!" said Lunamaria with much greater force that she'd intended, "Guys like Wufei are _so _not my type. He's stuck up, even if he has the skills to back it up. He never gives you any clue as to what he's really thinking, and when you try to learn more about him he just gives you these half-riddles and cryptic responses and acts like he expects you to be able to figure things out just from those! He's standoffish and doesn't even try to socialize with the rest of us; it's like he wants to _make _us approach him instead of putting in any effort himself! I don't care that he's good-looking and has a kickass mobile suit and helped save our hides in the past three battles; his attitude pisses me off!"

Lunamaria was surprised to see her sister actually smile and giggle. "Oh, Luna…"

Lunamaria scowled. "Oh, Luna, _what_?"

Meyrin shook her head. "Nothing."

Lunamaria sighed. Now wasn't the time to be arguing with her sister.

"Whatever," she said, "Come on, let's go topside and get some air."

Meyrin nodded. "Sure."

It only took them a few minutes to make their way up to the landing pad positioned behind the battleship's bridge. Lunamaria figured it was as good a place as any to relax and shoot the breeze with her sister for a while, but when they arrived she immediately saw that they would have company there. Standing in the middle of the platform, seemingly oblivious to the sounds of the dock crews working on the _Minerva_, was none other than Wufei.

And he was holding a sword.

"What the hell?" said Lunamaria, raising an eyebrow.

"What's he doing up here?" asked Meyrin, "And what's with the sword?"

That was what Lunamaria wanted to know. She watched as Wufei shifted his stance, holding the curved blade behind him in his right hand while his left was held out in front of him, palm open. He closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and then leaped into the air.

Lunamaria's eyes widened at the height he was able to achieve. It should've been impossible for a Natural to jump as high as he was doing now. The height wasn't the only thing that impressed her; while airborne he went through a fluid flip, and as he came down he brought his sword around with him, using the momentum to make a powerful falling strike.

As soon as his feet hit the deck he was moving again, rushing forward with his blade lashing out in a series of lighting blows. He was swift and aggressive in his relentless assault against his imaginary foe, and his sword flashed through the air looking almost like streaks of silver light rather than a physical weapon.

"Whoa…" said Meyrin softly.

"Holy crap…" Lunamaria whispered as she watched the display of martial prowess in awe.

Lunamaria had seen Wufei with that sword before, but it had always been sheathed. She'd just assumed that it was decorative, a means for him to intimidate people and nothing more. While she already knew that he was a highly skilled mobile suit pilot, Lunamaria hadn't even thought of the possibility that those talents would also extend to a more traditional form of combat.

_He's as fast as a Coordinator_, she thought as he continued his exercise, _I don't believe it! How the hell is that possible?_

Her mind flashed back to the last time that she'd seen something resembling what Wufei was doing now. It was back during the last war, shortly after the Fall of Avalon.

The duel between Heero Yuy and Shemei Rehema.

Back then those two legendary fighters had settled their score using not mobile suits but traditional swords. Lunamaria hadn't witnessed the event firsthand, of course, but someone from within the group that had become known as the Three Ships Alliance had gotten the entire duel on video and had posted it online. The video had quickly spread like wildfire despite all attempts by the Zala regime to purge it from the web. There wasn't a soul in the PLANTs that hadn't seen that video by now, and Lunamaria perfectly recalled the shock that she had felt at the duel's conclusion.

His speed, grace, and power were phenomenal. One move would flow smoothly into the next, and if there were any openings in his defenses Lunamaria could not spot them. His balance was perfect and his focus was absolute. The ways of the sword were completely alien to Lunamaria, but she had a feeling that if Wufei were to be plucked from this world of mobile suits and mechanized warfare and flung into the distant past where battles of life and death came down to one's skill with a blade he would absolutely thrive in an environment like that.

_What kind of training does it take to fight like that?_, she thought as she continued to observe him, _We were taught hand-to-hand combat at the academy, and Reds get more specialized training, but nothing I can do comes anywhere _close _to this!_

If her instructors from ZAFT could see Wufei now Lunamaria would wager that they'd be at a complete loss for words. This wasn't mere close-quarters take-downs and punches; this was martial arts refined to an unbelievable degree of sharpness and intensity. It was captivating, almost beautiful in a primal way, and Lunamaria knew that it would be utterly _lethal _should anyone have the misfortune of taking on the likes of Wufei in close-quarters-combat.

She watched as Wufei leapt high into the air again, achieving an altitude that Lunamaria knew she couldn't match even with her enhanced physical abilities as a Coordinator. Once again he executed a smooth flip before coming back down, using his momentum to add power to his swing. His feet hit the deck with the grace of a cat, and he immediately rushed forward, his blade flashing through the air like bursts from a machine gun.

Lunamaria was completely in awe. Where had this guy _been _during the last war? A fighter as powerful as him should've gained a reputation regardless of what kind of machine he'd been using back then, or even if he'd been acting as a foot soldier. With his level of skill and strength Lunamaria found it impossible to believe that he had sat out the Bloody Valentine War, but she had no idea where he was from or what side he might've fought on.

"Can Duo fight like this?" she heard her sister mutter.

"I know I can't," said Lunamaria, at a loss for any other words at the moment.

She saw him go into a back handspring. Pushing himself off the ground with only one hand, he effortlessly flipped back and landed on his feet. He gave a few more swings of his sword for good measure before sheathing the blade and turning towards the two of them and folding his arms.

"You know," he said, "I don't really like performing for audiences."

Lunamaria scowled. "Well, this isn't exactly a restricted area, you know? If you want a private practice arena you're going to have to find one off the ship."

"It doesn't matter," he said as he walked over towards the side and looked out over the edge of the platform, "I'm done for now, anyway."

"I'll… be going back inside," said Meyrin, awkwardly edging towards the door, "Luna… catch you later."

"Hey!" said Lunamaria, "You don't have to go just because he's being a jerk!"

"It's fine!" Meyrin replied, "See you around, sis! Nice to see you, Wufei!"

She was through the door and gone before Lunamaria or Wufei could react. Lunamaria shook her head. She should've expected this; her sister had a habit of shying away from certain people that she found to be intimidating, and Lunamaria couldn't blame her for wanting to put some distance between herself and Wufei.

"Well," said Lunamaria as she walked over to join Wufei, "You scared my little sister off. Congratulations."

"Leaving was entirely her decision," Wufei shot back coolly, "She could've stayed had she wished to."

Lunamaria shook her head. "You really do have a way with people, don't you?"

"I've been told that I can be… abrasive, at times," said Wufei, "Whether people think that of me or not really is no concern of mine. My actions speak louder than any words can. If they really want to judge me they can let my skills stand in for rhetoric."

"You know," said Lunamaria, "you'd have a much easier time making friends if you pulled that arrogant kung-fu guy stick out of your ass."

She was surprised to see him chuckle. "Now you sound like Duo."

"Probably because he has a point," Lunamaria replied as she folded her arms.

"If he'd ever learn to shut his mouth I _might _start taking what he says seriously," Wufei shot back, "but the day that happens is the day hell freezes over."

"You might talk shit about him," said Lunamaria, "but you two seem to work well together in a fight. Actually, all five of you guys do, really. How long have you all been doing… well, what you guys do?"

"Longer than you," said Wufei.

Lunamaria rolled her eyes. "I _get _that. Care to specify _how _much longer?"

Wufei shrugged. "Not really."

She groaned. "Why do I even bother?"

"Good question," said Wufei as he looked at her, "Why _do _you have such an interest in my past?"

She was taken aback by how serious he had become. "Well… that's… complicated."

"I don't think it should be," said Wufei as turned back towards what was beyond the platform.

Lunamaria could feel herself blushing, as much as she might try to fight it. "Look… can you really blame me for being curious? I mean, I know I'm not the only one who's got questions about you guys."

"I'm sure," Wufei replied, "but you're the only one that seems to be focusing on _me_. Care to elaborate?"

Lunamaria looked down, suddenly quite eager to avoid looking him in the eye. What was getting into her?

"I…well, you did save my life back at Armory One," she said after a moment, "and your moves... well, I've only seen a few pilots that could take you on, and all of them fought in the last war. I want to know how you got so good."

"So you can try to match me?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Lunamaria sighed. "Look, I get that I'm nowhere near your level of skill, all right? I can figure that out without you telling it to my face. That doesn't mean that I don't want to get stronger. I want to be the best pilot that I'm capable of being. Your fighting style's different than mine, but that doesn't mean that I can't learn a thing or two from you."

To her surprise he actually smiled. "So you do have a little bit of wisdom."

"I'm not Shinn," she replied, "I know how to recognize my weaknesses."

Wufei nodded. "You do. While it's true that you fight at long range, I think there are a few things that fighting up close could teach you. In fact, why don't we start now?"

Lunamaria raised an eyebrow. "Wait, what?"

"You want to learn a thing or two from me?" asked Wufei as he walked towards the center of the platform, "Show me how you play my game right now."

Her eyes widened. "Wait, you mean you want me to _fight _you? As in hand-to-hand?"

"I don't have an extra sword for you," he said with a shrug, "so fists will be the way to go. Got a problem with that?"

Lunamaria smirked as she followed him. "Not at all. I've wanted to smack that smug smirk off your face for a while now. If you're giving me a shot then I can't refuse!"

Wufei chuckled. "You think it's going to be that easy?"

"You're not using your sword, right?" said Lunamaria, "I think I can get a good hit in."

"We'll see," Wufei replied as he unclipped his sheathed sword from his belt and set it down off to the side.

He then turned to her and raised his hand in a gesture of challenge. "Show me what you've got. Don't hold back."

Lunamaria grinned. "All right, you asked for it!"

She rushed forward as fast as she could. Lunamaria knew that she couldn't beat him when it came to sheer skill, but if she put everything she had into her first strike then she had a chance to land a solid hit on him. Waiting until the last possible moment to avoid telegraphing her attack, she threw a hard right punch aimed right at his jaw.

It never came close to landing. In a single fluid motion Wufei caught her arm and turned her forward momentum against her by throwing her to the ground. Her back hit the deck, and for a moment Lunamaria found herself seeing stars.

_How…_, she thought in a daze, _how did he do that so easily? It's like he wasn't even trying…_

He knelt down beside her, and for a moment it looked like he might be concerned, although Lunamaria couldn't entirely trust her senses right now. "You okay?"

Lunamaria groaned as she sat up and rubbed the back of her head. "I think so. Damn it, what the hell happened? How'd you take me out like that?"

"You had the right idea," said Wufei as he stood back up, "Going with speed and throwing all you had into your opening move was a solid strategy given the gap in our skills. However, you're too tense. You may have held off on your punch until the last second, but it was still easy to see coming."

Lunamaria shakily got to her feet. "Okay, then. How do I fix that?"

"By embracing a different mindset than what you were taught by your academy instructors," Wufei replied, "The reason I was able to counter you so easily was because I'm able to keep myself relaxed."

Lunamaria raised an eyebrow. "You, relaxed? With the stick you have up your ass I have a hard time seeing that."

Wufei rolled his eyes. "I'm talking about my body. Yours was too rigid. You had all your energy bunched up, and there were only a few paths for it to be released along. By relaxing your body you make it easier to be flexible in a tight spot. That's how I was able to grab your arm and use the energy behind your attack to my advantage."

Lunamaria nodded. "All right. So, how can I do that?"

"Be like water," Wufei replied.

Lunamaria raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"It's not a puzzle," said Wufei, "Water seeks the path of least resistance. It flows ever onward, working its way around that which it cannot overpower directly. Imagine trying to achieve a state like water when you train. Embody the flexibility of water, and you'll be able to do what I just did."

Lunamaria folded her arms. "So all I have to do is just think of myself as water and that's it?"

Wufei shook his head. "Of course not. If all it took were imagination then anyone could do it. You have to combine that mentality with your physical actions. Mind and body have to be in synch."

"This is getting a little more mystical and 'out-there' than I thought it would," said Lunamaria, "I'm a soldier, not some fighter in a Wuxia film."

"The martial arts passed down by my clan are not quite the same as the hand-to-hand drills taught by the militaries of the world," said Wufei, "If you look at them as just physical fighting techniques and nothing more then you'll never truly be able to perform them. Your mentality is just as important as your body."

Lunamaria nodded. "Okay, then. How do I get my mind and body in synch?"

"The same way I do," said Wufei as he raised his hand and gestured for her to come at him, "Practice. Care to go again?"

Lunamaria smiled as she raised her fists. "You're on!"

….

**October 17****th****, C.E. 73**

Standing down on the dock, Talia looked up at the crews that were working on the portside hull of her warship. It wasn't any serious maintenance; they were mostly just giving the paintjob a good touch-up. Still, Talia did want to spend some time outside today observing the dock crews.

_I don't know why I'm worried_, she thought, _These Morgenroete personnel have been very professional in their work. I'd say that they're as good as any ZAFT dock crew, actually._

"It looks like the maintenance is going along quite well," said a familiar male voice from behind her.

Talia turned around and smiled at Arthur, who was holding a clipboard with a checklist. "It is, isn't it? I'll admit that I was concerned when we first arrived here about the ability of the dock crews to work on a ZAFT warship, but it seems my fears were misplaced."

"Morgenroete accepts nothing less than the best personnel for her ship maintenance crews," said a new voice, this one female, "Your vessel's in very good hands."

Both Talia and Arthur tuned towards the newcomer. It was a woman with long brown hair and deep brown eyes. She appeared to be about Talia's height, and the ZAFT captain suspected that she was around her age as well, or perhaps a year or two younger. She was dressed in the red shirt and khaki pants that were the standard attire for Morgenroete personnel, and she had a warm and welcoming smile on her face.

"Forgive me for interrupting," she said as she approached the two of them, "From your uniform may I presume that you're the commanding officer of this vessel?"

Talia nodded and smiled as she held out her hand. "Yes. I'm Captain Talia Gladys, and this is my Executive Officer, Arthur. It's a pleasure to meet you, miss…"

"I'm Maria Bernes," the woman replied as she shook Talia's hand, "I'm a manager with Morgenroete's shipbuilding and maintenance division. It's nice to meet you."

Talia had a strange feeling as she shook Maria's hand. She couldn't explain why, but she felt as if she should know her from somewhere. They hadn't met before, at least to Talia's knowledge, but she still couldn't shake the sensation that she should be familiar with her.

"Pardon me," said Talia, "but I've been out here several times since my ship docked here, and I haven't seen you with the crews until today. Why is that?"

"I've been working at another dock," Maria replied, "I was asked to come in today because the manager who has been supervising your ship's maintenance had a family emergency to attend to. Nothing too serious; apparently his son's a bit of a troublemaker at school."

Talia nodded. "I see. Well, I do appreciate all the work your crews have done on my ship. I'm confident that when we eventually depart here the _Minerva _will be in perfect working order."

Maria smiled. "You can count on that, Captain Gladys."

"Captain," said Arthur, "We should be getting back inside. It's almost time for us to send our morning status update to L5."

Talia nodded. "Of course. Thanks for the reminder, Arthur."

She turned back to Maria. "I'm afraid I have to get moving. Thanks again for taking care of our ship. Please, pass my compliments along to your workers."

Maria nodded. "Will do, Captain."

….

"Well?" said Erica Simmons as Murrue entered her office, "What did you think?"

Murrue smiled as she walked up to her friend, who was standing by the window overlooking the dock. "I have to say, she truly is an impressive warship. Seeing all the data Heero sent to us about it was one thing, but it's quite another to get up close and personal with it like this."

Erica nodded. "She's the pride of ZAFT's fleet for a reason. Nowhere near as large as the super carrier _Gondwana _or the surviving _Orizaba_-class carrier/dreadnoughts, and she can't carry anywhere close to as many mobile suits as those beasts, but she's an offensive powerhouse and a technological marvel."

"Yes," said Murrue as she looked down at the warship, "ZAFT clearly took a few pages out of the _Archangel_'s book when they were designing her."

"And her mobile suits," Erica added, "Especially the Impulse; it's a much more potent version of the old Strike unit in every way. Part of me wants to chide ZAFT for the imitation, but I have to admit that it's a quality piece of work."

"Agreed," said Murrue with a smirk, "I wonder how Kira would feel about ZAFT copying his old machine?"

"I doubt he'd really care one way or the other at this point," Erica replied, "The Freedom surpasses the old Strike in every way that counts and he seems quite happy with it."

Murrue nodded. "That's true. From the data Heero sent over it seems that the other units ZAFT designed are quite formidable as well."

Erica chuckled. "Yeah, at least on paper. Don't forget that two of them fell at Armory One; together they didn't even last a minute against Wing Zero Albion."

"Well, Heero did get the drop on them," said Murrue.

Erica smirked. "Come on, Murrue. Do you think those two machines and their pilots would've done much better against Heero in a straight-up fight?"

Murrue smiled. "Good point. I'm impressed that the Gaia was able to escape him, although if it hadn't been for the gunbarrel unit I suppose that machine wouldn't have been so lucky."

Erica nodded. "I'm with you there. That being said, the enemy has put that machine to good use since they stole it. It certainly gave the ZAFT drill teams a hard time at Junius Seven."

"Yes," said Murrue, her eyes narrowing in thought, "It's a rather versatile mobile suit, too. The focus of its mobile armor form may be on terrestrial combat, but the Gaia's mobile suit form handles quite well in outer space. I wonder if we'll get the chance to see it in action on the surface."

"From the data I've reviewed I think it outclasses the old ZAFT BuCue units," said Erica, "It probably outperforms the Desert Tiger's LaGOWE in mobile armor form as well. ZAFT took all the best aspects of their standard surface combat mobile suit and amped them up with the Gaia. If they had the combat data from that unit I bet that they'd be using it to work on a new generation of mass production ground warfare mobile suits."

Murrue nodded. "I imagine that was the aim of the whole prototype program that they had at Armory One. The data they could eventually have gathered from the Chaos and Abyss would've been invaluable in creating next-generation air and underwater combat units."

"No doubts there," said Erica, "Although… ZAFT might still get the chance to get new data for advanced air combat units."

Murrue raised an eyebrow. "Care to elaborate?"

"There was an interesting bit of information that the Wolf picked up through his network of contacts in the PLANTs," said Erica, "He first heard about it a little bit before Heero set out for Armory One, and he got some corroborating intelligence on it right before that big battle up in orbit took place. Apparently that black ops group didn't pick the best time to raid the colony."

"What do you mean?" asked Murrue, "From where I'm standing their timing was excellent apart from Heero and the other Gundam pilots showing up. ZAFT's defenses at Armory One were much weaker than at L5 as a whole, and at the time that they were launching the _Minerva _the majority of the personnel they had at the colony were green. Having both Chairman Durandal and Cagalli at Armory One would actually have been a bonus to them; they had a chance to eliminate the rulers of both the PLANTs and Orb. Frankly they got pretty close to accomplishing that as well."

Erica shook her head. "I'm not arguing with you there. However, apparently at the time the colony was attacked it actually didn't have _all _of the prototypes that were supposed to launch with the battleship."

Murrue's eyes narrowed. "There's a missing unit?"

Erica nodded. "Yes. The file Bristow's contact within the Integrated Design Bureau managed to pass along had some very interesting information on it. The mobile suit's official designation is the ZGMF-X23S Saviour. It's an aerial assault mobile suit like the Chaos, although it lacks that unit's gun-drones."

"Why was it not at Armory One?" asked Murrue.

"From what I understand, it seems that its development had fallen behind that of the other prototypes," said Erica, "The intel didn't list a specific reason, but the Wolf thought that they were having trouble with the machine's shifting sequence from mobile suit to mobile armor form. They brought it back to L5 for some fine-tuning."

"Another transformable unit," said Murrue, "ZAFT's really got a thing for those these days."

"Can you blame them?" asked Erica, "The Treaty of Junius Seven put them at a numerical disadvantage compared to the Earth Alliance military, so they're trying every trick in the book to make up for that gap. Transformable units are more technologically complex but offer a higher degree of versatility, not to mention unique capabilities. ZAFT was probably counting on the variability of all five prototypes acting in concert with the _Minerva _to provide an advanced vanguard force on the battlefield and put the Earth Alliance off balance."

"They may well still have that to a lesser degree," said Murrue thoughtfully, "The Impulse seems formidable enough, and if ZAFT works out whatever issues they're having with the Saviour then I imagine that they'll have it join the _Minerva _soon enough; it sounds like it was designed to operate with that warship and the other prototypes, after all."

Erica nodded. "That would be a reasonable assumption. As for who they'll tap to be its pilot, I suppose that's up in the air."

"Miriallia mentioned something interesting in her report," said Murrue, "She said that the word going around Armory One was that ZAFT was hoping that the _Minerva _and her prototypes would be able to take on Wing Zero if they acted on concert. Was that just arrogance, or would they actually have a shot at fighting Heero on even ground?"

Erica's eyes narrowed. "That's a good question. Even pre-upgrade Wing Zero was one hell of a mobile suit, quite possibly the deadliest in the Cosmic Era, and that's not counting the serious performance boost it gets from having a pilot of Heero's caliber at its controls. ZAFT's gone a long way towards addressing the technology gap, especially with this new generation of mobile suits, but still… even if they had all five of their prototypes I have a hard time seeing them actually beating Heero in a straight up fight. Their odds get even longer when you factor in that the mobile suit's been upgraded into the Wing Zero Albion. If Durandal was trying to find a way to counter Wing Zero while remaining within the bounds of the Treaty of Junius Seven, however, his options would be limited. I can see the _Minerva _and her mobile suits being envisioned as some sort of rival force for Heero, although I think Durandal would have better luck following the model of Zala's Special Operations Squadrons."

"Even though Heero annihilated them in the last war?" asked Murrue with a smirk, "That model didn't exactly have a track record for success against him, if I recall correctly."

Erica chuckled. "True enough. That being said, Zala didn't commit his best units until the end of the war. Gault Team in particular put up a good fight against Heero at Jachin Due."

Murrue nodded. "Yes, but the leader was piloting another Freedom; that was part of why that team was able to last as long as they did. Unless Durandal's been violating the Treaty of Junius Seven he won't have any comparable units in his arsenal."

Erica folded her arms. "Do you really think the PLANTs are playing by the rules, Murrue? We're already pretty sure that the Alliance has violated the Treaty, and we all know that our arsenal flies in the face of it. If ZAFT doesn't have some black projects on the books regarding nuclear powered mobile suits or other proscribed weapons systems then I'll be very disappointed."

Murrue sighed. "You're right. Black projects, the rise of all these new PMCs, entire battle groups flying without official IFF tags… the more that I see, the more I become convinced that the Treaty's not worth the paper it's written on."

"You're not the only one," Erica replied, "Between you and me, I think the writing's on the wall; this 'peace' of ours won't survive through to the New Year."

"That's a pretty pessimistic outlook," said Murrue.

"I'm not exactly thrilled about that line of thinking," said Erica, "but I'm trying to be realistic here. We all need to if we're going to survive what's coming."

Murrue nodded. "You're right. Wishful thinking won't do us any favors. We have to prepare for the worst."

Erica smiled. "Fortunately for us, we've got an edge there. The Orb mainland's not our only base of operations; we've got our facilities at L3 as well, not to mention the _Eternal_'s secret hideaway. We may not have a clear picture of everything the Alliance and ZAFT can bring to the table, but the same goes for them; they've got no idea how much power we've got stashed away."

Murrue smirked. "Yes, and now we have the other Gundam pilots thrown into the mix as well. There's no way that Blue Cosmos or Durandal's administration could've prepared for the likes of them."

Erica chuckled. "No kidding. Heero threw a wrench into everyone's plans in the last war. Four more pilots like him? I can't wait to see the amount of havoc they can wreak on the Alliance and ZAFT."

"The events stemming from the attack at Armory One have proved to be a very informative sampling of their abilities," said Murrue, "and I doubt that we've seen the full extent of what they're capable of yet. From what Heero told me, it seems like their upgraded Gundams are just full of surprises."

Erica nodded. "You've got that right. Designers for the Alliance, ZAFT and Orb would sell their souls for the chance to study the schematics of those four mobile suits, and that's not even adding Wing Zero Albion into the mix. Heero's beast is still the crown jewel of the collection, no doubt there."

"Thanks in no small part to your efforts," said Murrue, smiling again, "You really went all out in helping Heero with the upgrades."

Erica laughed. "I might've gone a bit overboard, actually. I really couldn't resist, though. The chance to work on that machine? Talk about a mobile suit engineer's dream come true!"

"Heero told me that you certainly enjoyed yourself," said Murrue, "and your enthusiasm certainly shows in the finished product."

Erica smiled. "I'd like to think so. If I had to name one project as my pride and joy, Wing Zero Albion would be it. There's nothing else in the Cosmic Era quite like that Gundam."

"Epyon Revenant would be a good rival for it," said Murrue, "It's a good thing that it's on our side as well."

Erica nodded. "I'm glad Shemei's gotten a good handle on that unit. I know it was pretty touch and go there for a while."

"Yes," said Murrue, "I know her husband wasn't happy about her using it, and for good reason. When Heero says that a mobile suit is trouble, you know that it's bad news."

Erica shook her head. "I still can't believe he wanted that version of the ZERO System installed in that machine. The original one's intense enough as is; why the hell would you design a variant that's even more demanding on the pilot?"

Murrue sighed. "You'd have to ask Treize Khushrenada about that, and I'm afraid that's not possible; he took his motives to his grave."

"Probably for the best," said Erica with a dark look in her eyes, "A man willing to give a mobile suit an operating system like that is _not _normal. Whatever his reasons were, I'm perfectly fine with not knowing them."

They were quiet for a moment before another thought crossed Murrue's mind. "Heero told me that there was a unit in the last war that reminded him of the Epyon. It was the mobile suit flown by Cipher in the final battle."

Erica nodded. "I remember him mentioning that. Why bring it up now?"

"Heero mauled it in his duel with Cipher," said Murrue, "From what I remember it appeared to be damaged beyond repair at the end of the fight, and I'm willing to bet that the destruction of GENESIS ripped apart whatever was left of it."

"Seems likely," said Erica, "What are you getting at, Murrue?"

"Well," she replied, "even if it failed to defeat Heero, the design itself was quite impressive. It did manage to stand up to Wing Zero for a considerable amount of time, even if much of that was with the aid of a partner. If ZAFT were to be looking for the means to counter Wing Zero, they may not have put all their eggs in the same basket as the _Minerva _and her prototype mobile suits."

"I get it now," said Erica, "You're wondering if Durandal's got ZAFT working on building another version of Cipher's machine as a black project. Maybe the other one that was working with it as well. Sound about right?"

Murrue nodded. "I doubt that ZAFT has forgotten those machines. If I was them and wanted to have a few secret weapons held in reserve, that pair of mobile suits would certainly be one of them."

"I agree with you there," said Erica, "and there were a few other designs that proved effective as well. Between the Earth Alliance and the PLANTs, it was the latter that built the most sophisticated mobile suits in the final phase of the war. The Alliance has made strides towards catching up, but even with all the progress they've made today I'd still give ZAFT the edge when it comes to the development of newer and more cutting-edge designs."

"Yes," said Murrue, "but what about finding pilots for them? Both sides' pilot corps' took monumental losses in the war, especially during the final battle. The Alliance and ZAFT still have some veteran pilots flying for them, but the bulk of the soldiers are green. It takes experienced pilots to use the more sophisticated mobile suits to their full potential."

"I don't know about ZAFT," said Erica, her eyes narrowing, "but the Earth Alliance may have a workaround for that. Remember what Heero said about some of their pilots that he fought in the last war?"

Murrue shuddered. "You mean the ones that he thought had been augmented… and were child soldiers?"

Erica nodded. "The very same. If the Earth Alliance was willing to cross that line once then I see no reason why they wouldn't do so again. Pilots like that may be no match for the likes of Heero and his comrades, but against regular forces they can wreak plenty of carnage."

"Yes," said Murrue softly, "and they make perfect vanguards for Alliance forces. That was demonstrated quite well in the last war as well. They inflict significant casualties on the enemy before they're taken down. The Alliance might've given them more advanced units than the standard Strike-Daggers that were rolled out after Alaska, but I have no doubt that they still saw those augmented pilots as nothing more than high-caliber cannon fodder."

Erica sighed. "Given that they still hold a numerical majority thanks to the treaty limitations, I have no doubt that the Alliance still views its pilots the same way. Besides, you and I both know that they would chuck the treaty limitations right out the window the second a war was declared. They'd no longer have to rely on black projects."

Murrue nodded. "Goodbye secret fleets and hello mass conscription. Sound about right?"

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Erica replied, "It's kind of depressing when our enemies are so predictable, isn't it?"

"Only because we witnessed their brutality and ruthlessness firsthand in the last war," said Murrue bitterly, "We know better than anyone else what they're capable of."

"And that's why it's our responsibility to stop them from repeating the crimes of the past," said Erica firmly, "That goes for both the Alliance and ZAFT."

Murrue smirked. "Tall order. Still, I think we're up for the challenge."

Erica nodded. "I hope so."

….

"Hey," said Athrun, waving as he saw his two friends approach, "Thanks for meeting me here like this."

Kira smiled as he joined him on the estate's rear deck, followed by Heero. "Sure thing, Athrun."

"From your message," said Heero, "it sounded important."

It was just like Heero to skip the pleasantries and get straight to the point. Athrun liked it better that way; there was no sense in beating around the bush with something like this.

Athrun nodded. "It is. Come on; let's head down to the beach."

He led the way down the stairs, and a few moments later the three of them were walking along the sand. "Did you guys see the news report earlier? The one from the Alliance?"

"About their inquiry, right?" asked Kira.

"It seems the release of their findings is imminent," said Heero.

"Yeah," said Athrun, "Anyway, I was doing some thinking about that. Whatever they release to the public, I doubt it's going to do much to ease tensions."

"What makes you so sure of that?" asked Kira.

"Their past behavior and their current rulers," said Heero, his eyes narrowing as he looked at Athrun, "Azrael and the old High Command may have all perished in the war, but their influence lives on; the political leadership in the Atlantic Federation remains much the same now as it was back then. It wouldn't be too much to assume that Blue Cosmos has replaced Azrael but is maintaining his policies. Any findings the Atlantic Federation releases from their Senate's inquiry will be designed to further inflame tensions in the Earth Sphere."

Athrun nodded. "That's what I thought, too. They won't be looking to calm things down; quite the opposite, in fact."

"Maybe," said Kira, "but we're not at the point of no return yet. Cooler heads can still prevail in all this."

"Perhaps," said Heero as he looked out at the sea, "but they'll be fighting an uphill battle. At any rate, I'm not sure that there are many rational political figures left in the Atlantic Federation that aren't under the thumb of Blue Cosmos or their sympathizers at this point."

Athrun sighed. "I think you're right. And the problem's not just in the Earth Alliance; the PLANTs have their share of issues as well."

Kira nodded. "Councilor Canaver's provisional government did a lot to sweep the radicals out of power, but I guess their ideology didn't completely die."

"The attempt by the extremists to drop the ruins of Junius Seven onto Earth is proof enough of that," Heero added.

Athrun closed his eyes for a moment, images from that battle flashing through his head. "One of the enemy pilots spoke to me during the fighting. He said that the path of Patrick Zala was the only path for Coordinators."

"He was a diehard supporter of the old regime," said Heero, "as were the rest of the members of the fleet that tried to drop the colony. The fact that ZAFT organized a task force to stop them shows that the current government's ideology has diverged considerably from that espoused by your father."

Athrun nodded, his eyes narrowing. "I know. Still, what that man said… it reminded me of the pull my father's memory still has over people. The people who want to refight the last war aren't just in the Earth Alliance; there are those in the PLANTs who want to have another round as well."

He looked up at the sky. "Our war's not over. The peace we've enjoyed wasn't a peace at all; it was just a pause for both sides to regroup and rearm."

"Athrun…" said Kira, "You can't mean that…"

Instead of turning to his old friend, Athrun looked at Heero. "You were right. None of us wanted to admit it, but your instincts were dead on about what our peace really was. What did you call it? The endless waltz, right?"

Heero nodded. "The three beats of war, peace, and revolution. It would seem that the Cosmic Era isn't ready to break humanity's pointless cycle."

"That can't be right!" cried Kira, "So many people died for the peace that we have now! We can't just accept that its end is inevitable!"

"It may not be pleasant," said Heero, "but to ignore what's staring us in the face now would be foolish. We need to be prepared."

"I agree," said Athrun, "and I think I know a way that I can help. However… I can't do it if I'm here with you guys."

"What are you talking about?" asked Kira.

Heero sighed. "I know what he's thinking. It's not a good idea, Athrun."

Athrun shook his head. "You're wrong about that, Heero."

"Convince me, then," Heero replied, "Why should I believe that you'll be able to make a bigger difference working with ZAFT than you could by staying with us?"

Kira's eyes widened. "You want to go back to ZAFT? Athrun, you can't be serious!"

"Calm down," said Heero, "I've already got a good idea as to his reasoning, but let's hear him out first."

Kira nodded. "Okay."

Athrun smiled. "Thanks."

"You might want to save that," said Heero, "I for one think that you're an idiot for considering this. I'll still listen to you, but you're going to have a hard time changing my opinion."

Athrun chuckled. "At least you're being honest about it. I can live with that."

"So," said Kira, "what gave you the idea to do this, Athrun?"

"A few things, really," said Athrun, "I'll admit that what happened in the orbital battle was what started it all for me, but it involves more than that."

"Like what?" asked Kira.

Athrun sighed. "Well, for starters, there's really not all that much I can do here with you guys. You all have your own mobile suits; mine was destroyed in the last war. Sure, I know it'd be easy for Simmons to use her influence in Morgenroete to send a Murasame my way, but that won't give me anywhere near the power that I had with the Justice."

"And you think that ZAFT will give you a more formidable unit?" asked Heero, raising an eyebrow, "You didn't exactly leave them on the best terms in the last war."

"He's right," said Kira, "Athrun, ZAFT still considers you a traitor! If you go back to the PLANTs you're signing your own death warrant!"

Athrun shook his head. "I don't think so. The Supreme Council Chairman said that he had known my true identity from the moment I stepped foot on Armory One, but he never made any attempt to have me arrested. I'm sure the warrant for my arrest is still active, but if the Chairman was serious about acting on it he had plenty of chances to do so while I was at the colony or aboard the _Minerva_."

"I wouldn't chalk that up just to his goodwill," said Heero, "When you were at Armory One you were Cagalli's bodyguard; having you arrested there would've made for a diplomatic incident that the Chairman likely wanted to avoid. As for when you were on the battleship, he was being strategic; he knew that you were a veteran mobile suit pilot, and given the situation I'm sure he felt that your talents might come in handy. He was simply keeping his options open. Since you were able to fly one of the ship's ZAKUs during the orbital battle I'd say that his prudence paid off. However, you're mistaken if you think that his flexibility amounts to complete amnesty in the eyes of the PLANT government for your actions during the last war."

Kira nodded. "If they were going to pardon you, I think that they would've had an official announcement about it by now."

"Maybe," said Athrun, "but even so, I'm willing to bet that if I go to L5 under my real name and ask to speak to the Chairman the last thing that they'll do is arrest me. Chairman Durandal's already recognized that my abilities are useful to him; at the very least I think that he'd be willing to hear me out before having me thrown into a cell."

"Fine," said Heero, "Let's go along with the assumption that they won't put you up against the wall in front of a firing squad the second that you get off the shuttle. I'll admit that your talents as a mobile suit pilot combined with your reputation from the last war would give Durandal some valuable tools that he likely wouldn't ignore. What makes you think that he'll be willing to put you in a position that has any real influence?"

Athrun sighed. "I'll admit that part's a bit shaky… but I think that anything in ZAFT would be better than what I've currently got down here."

"Athrun, how can you say that?" asked Kira, "You're part of Terminal, and you're Cagalli's bodyguard! You've got plenty of influence, and if you work with us you can help us make a real difference."

Athrun shook his head. "Normally I'd agree with you, Kira, but… well, these past few days haven't exactly been normal."

Heero's eyes narrowed. "Something's happened between you and Cagalli, hasn't it?"

"No," said Athrun, "It's nothing like that."

"Really?" asked Heero, not even bothering to hide the skepticism in his voice.

Athrun sighed; there was no point in circling around the issue with Heero. He was just too damn perceptive.

"Well," he said, "it's not _entirely _like that?"

"What are you talking about?" asked Kira.

"Ever since we've gotten back," said Athrun, "I've only been able to see Cagalli twice. I know she wanted me to take some time off, so technically I haven't had to fulfill my duties as her bodyguard, but I still want to see her. However, something's happened; I'm having a much harder time getting access to her than I once had."

"Did you two get in a fight?" asked Kira, "I could talk to her if you think it would help."

Athrun smiled and shook his head. "I appreciate that, but Cagalli and I haven't had a fight or anything like that. In fact, as far as I can tell I don't think I've done anything that would make her want to keep me away. I know she wanted to shield me from the political infighting that she has to deal with in her job, but there's a difference between that and what I'm facing now."

"So if she's not limiting your access to her," said Heero, "that means someone else is."

"I don't understand," said Kira, looking between Athrun and Heero, "Who would do that? Why would they want to keep you away from my sister, Athrun?"

Athrun met Heero's gaze. From the look in his eyes Athrun had a feeling that Heero already suspected the culprit. However, he didn't say anything; it would fall to Athrun to actually make the accusation.

"It's her cousin," he said, "Yuna Seiran."

Kira's eyes widened. "What? Why?"

"Well," said Athrun, "he's never liked me to begin with. He wasn't a fan of the idea of a Coordinator protecting the ruler of Orb."

"Rather petty of him," said Heero, "although it's not too surprising; he wasn't exactly pleasant to deal with in the aftermath of the attack on the Elysium colony"

"Does he not like Coordinators in general?" asked Kira.

"It wouldn't surprise me," said Athrun, "but I don't think that's the only reason that he's trying to keep me away from Cagalli."

"What would other motives would he have?" asked Heero.

Athrun sighed. "I found out about this a while after I became Cagalli's bodyguard. Apparently there used to be some kind of arrangement between Cagalli's father and Yuna's. It involved binding their houses closer together. Cagalli told me that the deal died with her father in the last war, but… well, I don't think Yuna got the memo."

"Binding their houses?" said Kira, raising an eyebrow, "They're already related, though, right?"

Heero shook his head. "Blue bloods… some things never change."

Athrun nodded. "I think Yuna and his father are trying to get more power through Cagalli, and they see me as an obstacle to that."

"Makes sense," said Heero, "Cagalli values you for more than just the relationship you have with her. As someone who grew up in the PLANTs and fought for ZAFT in the last war you provide a unique insight into them, and she can use that as a means to maintain friendly relations with L5."

"I don't get it," said Kira, "Why would Yuna and his father think of Athrun's background and the advice he might give Cagalli as an obstacle?"

"Because the Seirans prefer closer ties with the Earth Alliance," Heero replied, "They want to avoid a repeat of the invasion that took place in the last war. I don't think that they see Orb's traditional stance of neutrality as a viable option towards achieving that; they're looking to secure their position, and in their eyes favoring the Earth Alliance is the best policy to accomplish that."

Athrun nodded. "If a new war breaks out, Orb's caught between ZAFT's forces at Carpentaria and the Atlantic Federation's Pacific Fleet based out of Pearl Harbor. Since ZAFT lacks the numbers that the Alliance has, they can't afford to launch offensives without careful consideration, and especially not against an officially neutral country. ZAFT's surface fleet isn't a direct threat to Orb in their eyes, but the forces of the Earth Alliance are. After all, they have the capacity to sustain offensives on multiple fronts, so they could easily attack Orb while still engaging ZAFT in other theaters."

"So in order to head off that threat," said Heero, "Yuna and his father seek to ingratiate Orb with the Atlantic Federation. In order to accomplish that, they can't afford to have Orb follow policies that give Coordinators favorable or even neutral treatment. It doesn't matter that both Naturals and Coordinators are considered equals in this country and that Cagalli's tried to extend that philosophy to her foreign policy; the Seirans need to undermine that stance in order to earn the Alliance's favor, which means removing Coordinator influence of any kind in the government."

"So it's all about them getting Orb on good terms with the Alliance before a new war breaks out?" said Kira, "That's so wrong!"

"I agree," said Heero, "but the Seirans don't see it that way."

"Yeah," said Athrun, "For them it's the right way to go."

"Not to mention," said Heero, "that with Alliance backing, they can increase their own power in Orb. That may actually be their real goal here."

"Do you mean that they plan on using the Earth Alliance to remove Cagalli?" asked Kira.

Heero shook his head. "I doubt that; the people of Orb love her too much for the Seirans to risk a stunt like that. She's more useful to them as a puppet ruler."

"Cagalli will never agree to go along with that!" said Kira.

"I know," said Heero, "but she might not be given a choice in the matter."

Athrun nodded. "Yeah, and I don't think there's anything that I can do to stop that from happening. When it does, what little ability I have to make a difference here will be gone. That's why I think it's best for me to go to the PLANTs. If I work with Chairman Durandal there, I think that I'll have a better chance to help all of you guys keep the peace. We may be close to the point of no return, but I believe that the Chairman is someone who could pull the Cosmic Era back from the brink."

"You can't know that for certain," said Kira, "Even if he's the leader of the PLANTs, he's just one man."

"Even if he agrees to let you help him," said Heero, "I doubt that it'll be out of simple gratitude. He'll want something in return. When you're in the PLANTs, you will be vulnerable; you won't have the leverage you'd need to negotiate with him."

"I'm prepared for that," said Athrun firmly, "I know it's a gamble, but at this point I think that it's the right thing to do."

"So nothing we say will stop you from doing this?" asked Kira.

Athrun shook his head. "Sorry, Kira, but I've made up my mind. I want to do my part to help preserve the peace and protect this world, and I think the best way for me to do that is with ZAFT."

"I still think that you're mistaken," said Heero, "but if your mind truly is set on this, then I won't try to stop you."

"When will you tell Cagalli?" asked Kira.

Athrun sighed. "I don't know. I'd like for it to be as soon as possible, but with Yuna trying to cut me off from her I can't figure out how to do it."

Kira smiled. "I'll talk to her. Yuna hasn't done anything to make it difficult for _me _to get in touch with her. Once I tell her what you're planning I guarantee that she'll make time to talk to you, regardless of what Yuna tries to do."

Athrun nodded. "Thanks, Kira."

"Anytime," he replied.

"I'll give Murrue and the others a heads up on your plan," said Heero, "When do you plan on leaving?"

"After I talk to Cagalli," he said, "No matter what happens, I _will _speak to her before going through with this."

"She'll be against this," said Kira, "Knowing her, she'll fight it pretty hard. Are you going to be okay?"

"I think so," said Athrun, "Cagalli's passionate, but she's also willing to listen. Once I explain things to her I think that she'll be fine."

Heero shook his head. "This won't be easy on her, Athrun. Thanks to her position she's surrounded by people who care more about their own political ambitions than they do the safety of Orb and her people. You're one of the few people within her circle that she knows she can trust."

"She can still turn to you guys for help when I'm gone," said Athrun.

"It's not that easy," Heero replied, "If she's to make contact with the rest of us, she has to do so in secret. None of the other noble families, the Seirans included, are aware of our exact location or the forces at our command. They may suspect, but they have no proof. In order to maintain that status quo Cagalli has to be very circumspect in how she meets and speaks with us. Given all that she has to deal with in the government right now it's incredibly difficult for her to find the time and space to set anything like that up. We'll do all we can for her, but your leaving like this will make her all the more isolated and vulnerable. That's one more reason why I'm against this plan of yours."

"Maybe," said Athrun, "but I still have to do this. Cagalli will understand, and she'll do all right. She's strong; you two know that just as well as I do."

"She may be strong," said Heero, "but much of that strength comes from the knowledge that she has us standing behind her. For her, you're the most important part of that strength. Loosing you as a pillar of support will weaken her, regardless of her inner fortitude."

"You and I will just have to make up for that, Heero," said Kira.

Heero nodded, and as he turned to Athrun again the former ZAFT pilot thought he saw a hint of disappointment in the Gundam pilot's eyes. "I suppose we will."

….

**October 18****th****, C.E. 73**

Looking down at her coffee mug, Meyrin sighed. "Another day and still no word. I guess I shouldn't be surprised by now."

It didn't take a genius to figure out what she was referring to. Her conversation with her sister about her preoccupation with Duo and his absence was still fresh in her mind, but Meyrin just couldn't help herself. She'd only known the young man for about a week before he'd gone off with Heero and his fellow Gundam pilots at the end of the orbital battle, but that didn't change the fact that he had somehow charmed his way into her heart and mind, and she couldn't get him out of there for the life of her.

What was it about him that had captivated her? Was it how he had saved the _Minerva _during the battle at Armory One? Was it his easy-going nature and confident attitude? Was it how he'd been willing to listen to her worries and find some way to offer her reassurance? Was it the way he carried himself with optimism and good-humor even though he'd undoubtedly suffered tragedy in his past? Or was it just that he looked _really good _in that priest's outfit of his?

Of course, it wasn't hard for Meyrin to admit that it was all of the above. Duo's combination of wit, kindness, and physical attractiveness was pretty impressive. Add into that the fact that he was clearly an experienced pilot with a highly sophisticated mobile suit, along with the fact that he had saved her life, and it was all too easy for Meyrin to get attached to the guy.

And he'd just up and left.

Meyrin didn't know why that bothered her so much, but it did. Intellectually, she knew that she should've seen it coming. Duo was not a ZAFT pilot; he was no more bound to remain on board the _Minerva _than Heero Yuy or any of the other Gundam pilots were. His allegiance appeared to be to the pilot of the Gundam Albion and whatever else that might entail. His stay aboard the _Minerva _was always going to be a temporary one, but it was still jarring to have it end so suddenly.

_I'm an idiot_, she thought as she took a sip of her coffee, _I know that I'm being stupid about this. I mean, I barely knew the guy. Sure, he was nice to me and gave me some good advice, but that was it. There's really no reason for me to be so down about him leaving like he did. Still…_

_ …I miss him._

So here she was, in the main break room of the _Minerva_, drinking coffee on her off time and trying to figure out where she went from here. She doubted that the _Minerva _would be in Orb for much longer; all the major repairs were done, and at this point the only work being done on the ship was minor maintenance. Since the ship was now on the surface Meyrin was sure that the Defense Council would want it to link up with the ZAFT forces at Carpentaria; it wouldn't make much sense to have the PLANTs newest warship operating out of another nation, after all.

She wondered if they'd be remaining on the surface for a while or if the Council would order them to return to Armory One or L5. Meyrin honestly would've liked to stay on Earth for a while longer. This was her first time down on the planet's surface, after all, and despite Duo's absence she really was enjoying the opportunity to explore the cradle of humanity, even in a limited fashion. The excursions she and the others had made into the city had been fun, and Meyrin was rather eager to see what Carpentaria and the area surrounding it was like too. If nothing else it promised to be a nice change of pace from the PLANTs.

_Sis and I can go exploring for a while_, she mused, _I mean, we won't exactly be on leave while we're at Carpentaria, but I bet they'll still let us off the ship for a little bit. I've always wanted to see a Vosgulov up close, and Carpentaria should have at least a few of those ships docked there._

"What's on your mind, sis?" said a familiar female voice.

Meyrin looked up and smiled as her sister walked over to her. "Not much. Just wondering what Carpentaria's going to be like when we get there."

Lunamaria nodded. "I hear you. It'll be pretty cool to check it out."

"Any idea when we might be heading over there?" asked Meyrin.

Lunamaria shook her head. "Your guess is as good as mine, sis."

"We won't be going there to sightsee," said Rey from a nearby couch, "It is a military base, after all, and we will be on duty."

"Hey," said Lunamaria, folding her arms, "You don't have be a buzz kill, Rey."

"Ah, don't mind him," said Yolan from a table off to the side where he was playing blackjack with Vino, "Rey doesn't know how to have a good time for the life of him."

Vino chuckled. "Hey, lay off Rey. At least he's not as grumpy as Wufei."

"I'm sitting right here," said the Gundam pilot dryly.

That was certainly true; he was on the same couch as Rey, and Shin was with him too. All three of them were focused on the monitor on the wall, which was showing a broadcast from one of the major international news networks. It was rather unusual to see all three of them chilling out in the same room together, but Meyrin supposed that it shouldn't surprise her too much that they were all in this room today. After all, they were likely there for the same reason that she and the others were.

Rumors had been going around the _Minerva_ that the Atlantic Federation government was set to make a big announcement today. Meyrin hadn't been able to pick up any concrete details, but the only logical topic she could think of was the results of the Senate inquiry regarding what was now widely known as the Break The World Incident, or the attempted drop of the ruins of Junius Seven by holdovers from the Zala regime. If the Senate was to present its findings today then Meyrin certainly didn't want to miss it. Whatever conclusions they came up with had the potential to decide whether or not this tense peace between the PLANTs and the Earth Alliance would last or if the orbital battle would be enough to plunge the world back into another war.

_They can't seriously think that the PLANTs had anything to do with the attempted colony drop_, she thought, _I mean, ZAFT played a major role in _preventing _the ruins from falling! Sure, if the ruins had actually fallen then the results would've been catastrophic, but the Alliance can't really want to start a new war over what _might _have happened._

She wished that she was more confident in that line of thinking than she really was. After all, no Coordinator could forget that it was the Earth Alliance that had started the trend of using weapons of mass destruction in the last war with the Bloody Valentine Tragedy. Sure, Patrick Zala had eventually tried to retaliate with GENESIS, and the Alliance had tried to finish what they'd started by attempting to nuke the rest of the Coordinator colonies, but there had been a considerable gap between the strike on Junius Seven and the events of the final campaign of the war. Two years had passed since that bloody conflict had ended; surely the old hatreds had cooled off over that time period, hadn't they?

"Hey, Meyrin," said Lunamaria as she sat down across from her, "Are you doing okay?"

Meyrin nodded and smiled for her sister. "I'm fine, Luna."

Lunamaria looked a little bit skeptical, but to Meyrin's relief she didn't press the matter. Instead she turned towards the couch in the middle of the room and smirked.

"How about that?" she said, "Those three in the same room, and no fight's broken out yet."

Meyrin laughed. "Yeah. Although… Heero was the one that actually got into a fight with Shinn, right? I mean, you did tell me that he knocked him out."

Lunamaria smirked. "Yeah, well, Shinn was kind of asking for it."

"I was not!" Shinn snapped from behind her.

Lunamaria rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. You told me yourself that you tried to hit the guy just because he said something that got under your skin. It's your own fault that he knocked you out like that. Seriously, you really need to get a grip on your temper, Shinn!"

Shinn folded his arms and turned back towards the wall monitor. "That's none of your business."

Lunamaria winked at Meyrin. "Boys. They're so stubborn, aren't they?"

"Not all of them," said Meyrin, thinking of a certain Gundam pilot.

Her sister smiled deviously; it was like she'd read Meyrin's mind. "Well, that Duo certainly _is _a laid back guy, isn't he? And he's pretty cute, too. Still can't take your mind off him, eh sis?"

Meyrin blushed furiously. "It's not like that!"

Lunamaria reached over and messed with Meyrin's hair. "Sure. Keep telling yourself that, sis."

"Oh, yeah?" said Meyrin, desperate to turn the tables on her sister, "Well, at least I wasn't having private sparring sessions with him!"

Now it was Lunamaria's turn to blush. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I came back to check up on you two after I left yesterday," said Meyrin, smiling, "So, how did you talk Wufei into giving you hand-to-hand combat lessons?"

Lunamaria folded her arms and shot a quick glance over at Wufei, who seemed to be ignoring their conversation. "I don't _need _him to teach me to fight; I got plenty of training from the academy. I… I just wanted a few pointers from him, that's all!"

"Right," said Meyrin, pressing her advantage, "and those pointers just so happen to involve him pinning you to the deck? Luna, are you trying to learn from him or trying to get him to cop a feel?"

Lunamaria's eyes narrowed, but the red in her face only grew even as she glared at Meyrin. "For your information, Wufei's not the kind of guy that would use hand-to-hand fighting as an excuse to do something like that. Jeez, Meyrin; I never thought _your _mind would go into the gutter like that!"

"Well," she said, "I did learn from you, Luna."

Lunamaria shook her head. "I guess I've been a bad influence…"

"Maybe!" said Meyrin with a laugh.

Their playful teasing was cut short by Shinn. "Hey, check it out! They're doing a press release!"

Meyrin's eyes widened as she turned towards the wall monitor. "Really?"

"Turn it up, Shinn!" said Lunamaria.

The sisters stood up and walked over to where Shinn and the others were. Leaning on the back of the couch, Meyrin watched as a blonde news anchor appeared on the screen, dressed in a red pants-suit.

"This is breaking news from Washington, D.C.," the woman said, "We now go live to the Capitol Building where the Senate committee investigating what's become known as the Break The World Incident is presenting their preliminary findings to the public!"

"This is it," said Rey.

Meyrin saw Wufei nod. "Indeed."

"Quiet!" hissed Shinn.

The image on the monitor shifted, and Meyrin found herself looking at three middle aged white men wearing high-end suits. They were sitting behind a long and fancy wooden table, while the emblem of the Atlantic Federation Senate was hanging on the wall in the background.

"The head of the committee," said the voice of the blonde anchor woman, although she herself did not appear on the screen, "for those of you who have not been following this inquiry too closely, is Senator William Perry of Texas. Accompanying him is Senator Patrick Carson of Georgia and Senator Robert Reagan of North Carolina. Together, they make up the most senior officials involved in the inquiry and are the heart of the committee."

"Heavyweight conservatives," Meyrin heard Rey mutter, "Not a good sign. They stacked the deck."

Wufei chuckled. "Are you surprised?"

Rey shook his head. "Not particularly."

_Those two seem to get along well_, thought Meyrin, _Odd, given that I barely ever see them talk to each other…_

On the screen, Senator Perry cleared his throat. "As you're all well aware, a little over a week ago there was a great battle in orbit between Coordinators who were trying to drop the ruins of the Junius Seven colony onto the Earth and those who were attempting to stop them. Thankfully the worst did not come to pass, but there were questions that still needed to be answered in the aftermath of this event. While the findings we are releasing today to the public are little more than a summary, rest assured that far more exhaustive information has been given to the President."

"These findings are the result of intensive work done by the committee and the associated agencies that aided us in our task," said Senator Carson, "You may rest assured that they are quite definitive; our conclusions are absolute and there is little room for alternative interpretation."

"Yeah, right," said Wufei, "After they spent barely more than a week with their investigation? This is a farce."

"One that will serve a purpose, no doubt," said Rey.

"Since when did you two become so chummy?" asked Vino.

"Shut up," said Shinn, "I want to hear this."

"There are those who will deny the conclusions that our inquiry has reached," said Senator Reagan, "This is only natural, since we have uncovered truths that are very uncomfortable for certain parties. However, their denials will only serve to further prove our conclusions and act as evidence of their guilt in the eyes of the world."

"That doesn't sound good," said Meyrin.

Lunamaria nodded. "I don't like this."

"As was revealed in the orbital battle," said Senator Perry, "The Coordinators who tried to inflict catastrophic harm upon our beloved Earth were no simple band of terrorists. They were highly organized and exceedingly well armed. It may be true that the warships and mobile suits that they employed were older models, but that does not change the fact that they were able to field a large mechanized force, the likes of which no private entity could ever hope to assemble."

"This leads us to one unmistakable conclusion," said Senator Carson, "These terrorists had help in acquiring their weapons and equipment. These may have been decommissioned warships and mobile suits, but any responsible government would have kept them under guard nonetheless. The fact that these Coordinators were able to gain access to these weapons of war is evidence that members of the current PLANT government, including its armed forces, sympathized with the terrorists and were willing to provide them with the material means to accomplish their goals."

"What the hell?" Shinn cried, "They're making it sound like we _wanted _them to have all those weapons!"

"Calm down, Shinn," said Yolan, "They're not done yet."

_No_, thought Meyrin, _but this looks pretty bad already…_

"Furthermore," said Senator Reagan, "after reviewing combat data records from the battle, it is abundantly clear that the force assembled by ZAFT to fight these terrorist was insufficient. The only reason the ruins of Junius Seven did not impact the Earth was due to intervention in the form of traitors and renegades from the old war, who were no doubt using the situation to further some nefarious plot of their own."

"In light of that," said Senator Perry, his eyes narrowing, "we believe that the PLANT government did not make a full-hearted effort to stop the fall of Junius Seven. Had they assembled a larger and more capable force, we might then be convinced of their sincerity, but the paltry battle group that they dispatched to halt the descent of the ruins speaks volumes as to their true feelings on the safety of our precious Earth."

"_Paltry battle group_?" said Meyrin incredulously, "That force was all that ZAFT could scramble on such short notice, and that's _still _more than what the Earth Alliance sent! They didn't do _anything _to help!"

"Son of a bitch," growled Lunamaria, "They're pinning this whole damn mess on us!"

"As we have already forwarded our more in-depth findings to the President," said Senator Carson, "naturally the means in which we respond to these despicable crimes are ultimately up to him. That being said, this committee has its own recommendations for how the Atlantic Federation must proceed going forward, and we would hope that the other member states of the Earth Alliance are willing to extend their cooperation to us in this matter."

"Here it comes," said Wufei softly.

Rey nodded. "Now the hammer falls."

"It is clear that we must take drastic steps to ensure the safety of not just the Atlantic Federation," said Senator Reagan, "but that of the Earth as a whole. The actions of the PLANTs with regards to the Break The World Incident reveal a disturbing mix of negligence and malice. It is abundantly clear that the Coordinator nation cannot be allowed to maintain such power and independence if this is the result of it."

Senator Perry nodded. "In order to protect our precious world, the PLANTs must be brought to heel. This committee's recommendations to achieving that end include a full economic embargo by all the nations of the Earth Alliance against the L5 government as a first step, while working with the rest of the global community to greatly reduce, if not eliminate outright, all commerce flowing to the PLANTs from Earth and vice versa. Following that, the PLANTs must be occupied by the terrestrial powers and subsequently disarmed in order to fully ensure the safety of the Earth."

"We would hope that the current administration in the PLANTs will see the necessity of these measures," said Senator Carson, "If they agree to cooperate and allow an occupation of their colonies then the economic embargo can be avoided outright, and we can proceed with fully integrating them with the nations of the Earth, as they were always meant to be."

"_Integrate_?" said Shinn with disgust, "That's bullshit! They want to enslave us!"

_Shinn's right_, thought Meyrin, _and that's one of the reasons the PLANTs became fully independent in the first place; we were tired of the nations of Earth exploiting us._

"However," said Senator Reagan, his voice taking on a grim tone, "if the PLANTs refuse to cooperate, then mere economic sanctions will not be enough to resolve this crisis in global security. That is why this committee strongly recommends that the Atlantic Federation must be prepared to act in a more forceful manner. A military solution is not ideal, but the nations of the world cannot shy away from the possibility of armed conflict."

"Force of arms is to be a measure of utmost last resort," said Senator Perry, "but we will counsel the President to keep _all _options on the table."

Wufei chuckled. "_All _options? Hardly."

Rey nodded. "Agreed. There's only one option that they really have in mind."

"Okay," said Lunamaria, "you two are seriously starting to scare me."

"The committee will now take questions from the press gallery," said Senator Carson, "However, any material that is considered classified will not be discussed."

Before the questions could begin Shinn raised the remote and turned off the monitor. The screen went black, but even after the faces of the three Senators had faded Shinn was still glaring at the monitor. Meyrin couldn't blame him.

There was a very uncomfortable silence in the room. Any thoughts of using the break room for its original purpose had gone right out the window. Meyrin was no mind reader, but she was sure that she knew what everyone else was thinking at that moment.

_There's gonna be another war…_

The three Senators may have framed the press conference as nothing more than the disclosure of their preliminary findings, but it was impossible for Meyrin to see it as anything other than a declaration of intent. No concrete demands had actually been issued; the Senate did not have that authority in matters of foreign policy. However, that did not change Meyrin's view that their 'recommendations' were really nothing short of an ultimatum.

An ultimatum that was guaranteed to be rejected.

….

"I think we've seen enough," said Shemei as she turned off the TV.

Beside her on the couch, Eric Bristow nodded in agreement. While the Atlantic Federation Senate's press conference had gone about along the lines that he had predicted, that didn't make the results any easier to swallow. While releasing preliminary findings of an inquiry was not the same as actually taking concrete action at the legislative or executive level, the Wolf of the Far East was certain that the wheels were already in motion.

The former ZAFT Field Marshal and his wife weren't the only ones in the living room at that moment. On another couch to the left was Andrew and Aisha Waltfeld, while sitting off to the right were Heero and Murrue. While the other members of Terminal were preoccupied with their own activities, Eric knew that they would get the news all too soon.

_It's official now_, he thought, _our leave is over._

He looked over at his fellow ex-Field Marshal, who nodded at him. "Well, I suppose it had to happen sooner or later."

"True," said Eric, "but it doesn't mean that I have to like it."

"None of us do," said Aisha, "but I think we all saw this coming for a while now."

"Since we learned that the renegades were going to try to drop the ruins of Junius Seven onto Earth, at least," said Heero, his voice grim, "It was never going to matter if we stopped them or not, at least as far as the politics of it all was concerned."

Murrue nodded somberly. "It's true that we saved many lives by stopping the fall, but if the Atlantic Federation is truly this determined to launch another war then they would seize upon any pretext to do so. What the committee heads just said… there's no way that the PLANTs will ever agree to anything approaching those terms."

"Agreed," said Eric, "Which means that we have some work to do."

"Should we prep the ships and get them into orbit?" asked Shemei.

"Not quite yet," said Heero, his eyes narrowing, "While the Alliance may be planning to move against the PLANTs, I doubt outer space is the only theater where they'll be mobilizing. In fact… we may have a more immediate threat closer to home."

"What do you mean?" asked Murrue.

Eric was curious as saw Heero turn to Shemei. "Would the girls mind if I borrowed one of their Wraiths?"

Shemei raised an eyebrow but nodded just the same. "I'm sure they'd be okay with it. What's on your mind, Heero?"

"I want to make a recon flight," he said, "To the north."

Eric saw Andrew's good eye widen as the proverbial light clicked on in his head. "To the Pearl Harbor naval base. Pacific Fleet HQ."

Aisha whistled. "That's a long flight. You up for that?"

Heero nodded. "It'll be an overnight job at the very least, but I can manage."

"I know what you're thinking," said Murrue as she put her hand over Heero's, "and I won't try to stop you. Still… be careful, all right?"

"Roger that," Heero replied.

"I'm going to start hitting up my contacts at L5," said Eric, "This might not have been a declaration of war from the Alliance, but I bet that ZAFT's on the move just the same."

"I'll check in with Kisaka," said Andrew, "I'm sure the Orb military's going to be shuffling some forces around too, both down here and up at L3."

"We should reach out to Cagalli," said Aisha, "Thing's have been hard enough for her the past week, and this is only going to make things worse."

"We have to be careful about that," said Shemei, "One wrong move and we'll tip off her political rivals about where we're at and what we're doing."

Murrue sighed. "Poor girl. You'd think that she'd be able to trust everyone in her administration, but we know full well that's not the case."

"Andrew," said Heero, and Eric saw a dark look in his eyes, "Does Kisaka have any intel sources close to the Seirans?"

Andrew shook his head. "None that would be of any use to us. You thinking that the Alliance will be reaching out to the Seirans?"

"If they haven't already," Heero replied, "The Seirans are well known for having a pro Earth Alliance stance when it comes to Orb's foreign relations. If the Atlantic Federation is set on starting up another war then they'll want as many cards in their hand as possible. Having the Seirans undermine Cagalli's adherence to Orb's traditional stance of neutrality and tipping the country towards the Alliance would likely be on their agenda."

Eric nodded. "Agreed. We need to keep our eyes on them now more than ever."

"Have the Seirans truly grown strong enough to compromise Cagalli's position?" asked Shemei, looking worried, "I know Unato's powerful on the domestic front, but I thought Cagalli still had enough influence when it came to foreign policy to keep him in check."

"That was the case immediately after the war," said Andrew, a dark look coming to his good eye, "Now, though… I'm not so sure."

"What about Orb's inquiry into the attempted colony drop, Andy?" asked Aisha, "Wouldn't that still carry weight since Orb still publicly has a neutral stance?"

"It's possible," the Desert Tiger replied, "but there are a lot of variables in play there."

"The biggest one of those is the makeup of the inquiry board," said Eric, his eyes narrowing, "Did Cagalli handpick the senior members, or did she just leave it up to her ministers? That could make all the difference."

Murrue sighed. "Things are moving too fast, and we've got too many questions that we can't answer. I have a bad feeling about this."

Heero nodded. "Our enemies have the initiative. Until we have more concrete information, we'll be stuck on the defensive."

"Hopefully your flight up north will give us some more data to work with," said Eric.

"I'm sure it will," Heero replied, "However… if I find what I think I will, I don't imagine that it will improve our position."

"We'll deal with that when the time comes," said Shemei.

Eric concurred with his wife's assessment. "That we will. For now, we've got our work cut out for us. Let's get to it."

….

Rushing through the corridors of the Athha estate, Cagalli nearly barreled over one of her servants. The young ruler offered a curt apology but did not stop; she had to get to the courtyard before her boyfriend decided he'd waited too long and left for the spaceport.

_That idiot!_, she silently fumed, _Athrun… why didn't you tell me about this before now?_

To be more accurate, it was actually Kira that had broken the news to Cagalli that Athrun was planning on heading to the PLANTs. Cagalli would've met with Athrun right away, but almost immediately after Kira had told her about Athrun's intentions the Atlantic Federation Senate committee had held its press conference. The announcement of their preliminary findings had only served to make what was already a _very _busy day for Cagalli even more chaotic, but she had been determined to make the time to see Athrun before the day was out no matter what it took.

_We're supposed to talk to each other about stuff like this_, she thought, _I can't believe he never mentioned this to me! He only asks me to meet him _after _Kira tells me his plan? What's wrong with him? He didn't think of this overnight; it has to have been on his mind for a while now!_

A few seconds later she was in the courtyard. It wasn't hard to spot Athrun; he was standing by the fountain at the center of the courtyard.

"Athrun!" she called as she rushed forward.

He turned to her and gave her a small nod and a smile. "Hey, Cagalli. Sorry about the short notice…"

"_Short notice_?" Cagalli repeated furiously, "Athrun, what the hell! Have you lost your mind? You can't go to the PLANTs!"

"I have to, Cagalli," he said, "It's the only way that I can really make a difference. I can't do anything here in Orb, but if I rejoin ZAFT…"

"That's not the right path!" Cagalli cried, "Kira told me what you were thinking, and you're wrong! Durandal may have let things slide on the _Minerva _because he needed you then, but he doesn't need you _now_. I do!"

Athrun sighed. "Cagalli… this wasn't an easy decision for me, you know."

"So why didn't you come to me sooner to talk about it?" she asked, "Athrun, I thought you trusted me!"

Athrun looked down, and he actually looked a little ashamed. "Cagalli, I _do _trust you. I _love _you! It's just…"

"Just _what_?" asked Cagalli pointedly, putting her hands on her hips.

"It's just that I couldn't get to you," he replied.

"What are you talking about?" said Cagalli incredulously, "Athrun, you're not just my boyfriend; you're my bodyguard! You can come to me anytime you want!"

"It was Yuna," said Athrun, "He kept saying that you were too busy to see me. No matter what I said, he wouldn't let me get to you."

Cagalli's brow furrowed as her fury found a new target. "What? That jerk! I can't believe he did that!"

"Look," said Athrun nervously, "Cagalli… I know about you and Yuna. You told me about that deal your father and his made a long time ago, remember?"

Cagalli blushed. "It's not like that, Athrun! I told you that that deal died with my father, remember? Besides, he's my cousin, and I never liked that deal to begin with!"

Athrun nodded. "I know. Still, it does bother me."

Cagalli couldn't blame him for that. It bothered _her _plenty, especially since she was the one who had to keep dealing with Yuna trying to bring the damn thing up in conversation. Her cousin had never really learned how to take a hint, and it was just one more bit of aggravation that she did _not _need to deal with right now.

She stepped forward and put her hand on his shoulder. "Athrun, you don't have to worry about me and Yuna. No matter what happens, I'm not going through with that deal that he wants."

Athrun smiled. "I know. I trust you, Cagalli."

He then reached into his coat pocket and pulled something out, though Cagalli couldn't see what it was. Before she knew what was happening he grabbed her hand, and a moment later she saw that he had slipped a ring onto her finger. It was quite lovely; a silver band with a crimson gemstone embedded in it.

Cagalli's blush from before returned, and it was much deeper now. "Uh… Athrun! This… this really isn't the right way to give someone a ring, you know?"

Athrun chuckled. "I know. I've never really been good at these sorts of things, you know that. I'm sorry."

Cagalli smiled. "No… it's okay. Thank you."

Athrun nodded. "You're welcome. I know that I'm leaving at a bad time, but I'll be back. Consider that ring to be my promise to you, okay?"

"All right," said Cagalli, "Just… be careful, okay? No matter what happens, you're not allowed to die on me!"

Athrun smiled. "You got it, Cagalli."

He leaned in to kiss her, and Cagalli readily met him. She wanted nothing more than to lose herself with him at that moment, to forget all about global affairs and the petty politics that she was surrounded with. She wanted to stay here, with him, forever.

It was not to be, and they both knew it. All too soon their lips parted, and the daydream was over. The real world awaited them both, and they each had their own paths to walk through it. As much as she might wish that Athrun would stay, she knew that there was no talking him out of this; his mind was completely made up.

"I love you," she said softly.

"And I love you, Cagalli," Athrun replied, "Take care of yourself, and don't worry about me. I'll come back to you."

"You'd better," said Cagalli with a smile, "If you don't then I'll have Kira and Heero hunt you down and drag you back here."

Athrun chuckled. "I don't doubt that one bit."

….

_This is it_, thought Athrun as he settled into his seat on the shuttle, _I can't turn back now._

Actually, that wasn't entirely true. He was at the rebuilt Kaguya spaceport, and the shuttle that he had purchased passage on was still taking on passengers. Athrun could get up and leave the shuttle right now if he had a mind to… but he did not. His decision was made, and he knew that he could not afford to look back now.

That didn't mean that he was entirely at ease with the call he'd made. It had been one thing to talk it over with Kira and Heero, but another entirely to confront Cagalli with it. As well as he knew her, Athrun still hadn't been prepared for how passionately opposed to the idea she had been. She might have ultimately accepted his decision, but Athrun realized that she was still hurt over it. Giving her that ring may have helped her, but part of Athrun's heart still felt like he was abandoning her.

_No_, he thought as he shook his head, _I'm doing this for both of our sakes. I'm only going to work with ZAFT to either help the Chairman stop a war from happening or to help end one as quickly as possible. Once either of those goals is met I'm returning to Cagalli immediately. This is the best way that I can help her. It's the _only _way that I can help her._

He'd told himself that more than a few times now, but it still rang a little hollow in his head. Nor for the first time his mind flashed back to his conversation with Kira and Heero on the beach. The look of disappointment in Heero's eyes stood out more than anything else from that encounter, and Athrun had a feeling he knew why. If Heero and Murrue were in the same positions that he and Cagalli were in now, Athrun was certain that Heero would not be making the same call that he had. The Gundam pilot probably felt that Athrun was leaving Cagalli to fend for herself when she needed him the most, but Athrun was convinced that his friend was wrong. He was acting with both of their needs in mind, and Cagalli wasn't alone; she still had the rest of Terminal to support her.

He didn't need the approval of the others in order to make his decision, although he would've liked to have it. Kira had been a bit easier on him, but Athrun was sure that his old friend was still uncomfortable with the path that he'd chosen. He supposed that he couldn't blame him. Athrun was taking a huge risk with this trip. He might be travelling under the name 'Alex Dino', but that cover had been blown while he was on the _Minerva_. Athrun would be seriously surprised if his alias hadn't been circulated throughout ZAFT and associated with his name by now; flying to the PLANTs under that pseudonym was practically begging to be arrested the moment he stepped off the shuttle.

Even if he was cuffed and thrown into a cell upon arrival, Athrun was willing to bet that it wouldn't end with him facing a firing squad. He had valuable skills and a considerable reputation. It might not have been as powerful as that of Heero Yuy, but he was sure that his exploits from the last war, the good and the bad, had to count for something. His experience with exactly the sort of fight that the world was teetering on the edge of now would give him a powerful bargaining chip, and Athrun was sure that the Supreme Council Chairman would see it as an asset.

_I doubt he'll go so far as to give me a brand new mobile suit_, he thought, _but that's fine; I can fight effectively with a ZAKU too. The Chairman will have plenty of evidence of my piloting skills in records from the last war, and if those aren't enough he can always check the Minerva's records from the Break The World Incident. I'm sure ZAFT's evolved since I left, but I bet plenty of the old regulations and protocols are still in place too; it should be a pretty smooth transition._

He hadn't wanted to admit this to his friends, but part of him was actually looking forward to being part of ZAFT again. This time the organization wouldn't be under the command of a monster like what his father had become. Heero and the others might not have trusted Chairman Durandal, but Athrun could tell that the man was _definitely _not cut from the same cloth as Patrick Zala. Projects such as the Armory One colony proved that he was a man with a constructive vision for the future and not obsessed with destruction and vengeance. His foreign policy as far as Athrun could tell had been measured, conciliatory, and open. There had been some bold steps, but nothing that broke diplomatic norms, threatened the peace, or was otherwise needlessly belligerent.

What would things have been like in the last war if ZAFT had been answerable to a man like Durandal instead of Athrun's father? The former ZAFT Red couldn't begin to say one way or the other. One thing was for sure, though; he could find out what it was like in the here and now.

….

"Well," said Atlantic Federation President Alexander Copeland on one of the room's several monitors, "are you satisfied, Lord Djibril?"

Sitting in the center of an elaborate and well equipped communications hub, the leader of LOGOS and Blue Cosmos smiled. "Not bad for our first step into the water. Our puppets performed quite well today. Senator Perry and his cohorts can expect to be well rewarded with fresh campaign contributions for their efforts."

Djibril wasn't in the Atlantic Federation capital himself, but he wasn't too far from it either. He was currently residing in an elaborate mansion that was a few hundred kilometers to the north of Washington D.C. It was just one estate of the several that he owned across the Atlantic Federation, but its relative proximity to the capital made it one of his most often used ones. From there it was just a quick trip by private jet to meet with his puppets in the Senate or the White House if he desired, or he could always hop over to New York City for a face-to-face chat with any number of LOGOS's major financial partners.

Copeland nodded. "My media staff's been monitoring the public reaction to the press conference. Demonstrations have occurred across the country. Granted, there was _some _astroturfing done on our part, but for the most part the people haven't required too much prompting."

Djibril chuckled. "Of course not. We've been priming them for years now in preparation for this day. We own the major broadcast networks, talk radio, and several influential online publications. With the messages that we've been feeding the people since the last war the coals of their hatred and fear of the Coordinators have been carefully tended to. Now we are ready for those hot coals to become the seeds of a raging fire. I must say, the sparks have ignited a very pleasant flame."

"One that I imagine you would like to be fanned further," said Copeland.

"A bit presumptuous of you, Mister President," Djibril replied with a smirk, "but only a bit. Yes, the fire must spread, and quickly. That is the responsibility of our media partners, though; you have separate duties to attend to."

"Yes, my lord," said the President, "How soon should we issue the official ultimatum?"

"Tomorrow evening will suffice," said Djibril, "The people will be expecting their Commander in Chief to make an official announcement of some sort, after all."

"Of course," said Copeland, "How many days should we give the PLANTs to respond?"

"Not too long," Djibril replied, "A few days, no more. I will leave the exact amount to your discretion, Mister President. Just make sure to inform me before you deliver the ultimatum."

The President nodded. "It will be done, my lord."

"That's all for now," said Djibril, "Farewell, Mister President."

As soon as one puppet left the screen another took his place. This one was yet another middle-aged Caucasian male, but instead of a presidential suit this one wore the white and red uniform of an Earth Alliance officer.

Djibril smiled. "Ah, Admiral West. As punctual as ever, I see."

Richard West, the new head of the Atlantic Federation High Command in the wake of Admiral Sutherland's death in the final battle of the war, nodded. "Lord Djibril. I believe you requested an update on the readiness of our forces."

"So I did," said Lord Djibril, "Begin with the orbital fleets, Admiral. Are they prepared for battle?"

"Yes, my lord," the Admiral replied, "The measures put in place by Colonel Nazara have succeeded in positioning our space forces. When the official muster order comes out it will be a simple matter to marshal the fleet that will strike L5."

Djibril grinned. "Excellent. What of the containment force? If Orb does not fall into line we will need them at the ready to blockade L3."

"All the senior officers have their orders," said Admiral West, "and the appropriate battle groups are on standby. Moving them into position to commence the blockade will take a matter of days at most."

Djibril nodded. "Very good, Admiral. I don't foresee us having to make use of the containment force, though; our puppets within the Orb government should bring that nation into line before such a measure becomes necessary. Still, I am quite pleased to hear that that particular contingency can be put into effect if required. You're much more competent than your predecessor, Admiral."

The Admiral bowed. "Thank you, my lord."

_More competent _and _more malleable_, thought Djibril, suppressing a smirk, _If I'd known that such an obedient and efficient tool was buried within the sludge of the military's officer corps during the last war I would've elevated him much sooner. No doubt Sutherland and the others kept him obscure because they viewed him as a potential rival, and Azrael failed to perceive that. Well, they're all gone now, which means that I get to take advantage of what should prove to be a very useful puppet._

"What about our forces at Pearl Harbor?" asked Djibril, "Is the Pacific Fleet ready for deployment?"

Admiral West nodded. "Yes, my lord. The fleet can set sail at a moment's notice."

Djibril smiled again. "Good. That will let us move against Carpentaria and serve as a sufficient threat to the Orb mainland. See to it that the fleet's prepared to act against both if necessary, Admiral."

"As you wish, my lord," said the Admiral.

_A little extra insurance_, he mused, _in case the Seirans aren't able to fully control that troublesome bitch of a Chief Representative. The last invasion of Orb cost the girl her father. She'll think twice about acting against us if her country's faced with the threat of another assault._

Truth be told, Orb's days were numbered regardless of whether or not Unato and his son were able to fully transform Cagalli Yula Athha into a puppet ruler. If they did prove capable of bringing her to heel and consolidate true power with themselves then Djibril would eventually have the girl eliminated, and her death blamed on the Coordinators. It would serve to give the Seirans power in both name and fact in Orb and also to further stoke hatred against the Coordinators, two outcomes that Djibril would certainly welcome. In the event that Cagalli was still able to exert enough power on her own to prevent Orb from fully toeing the Atlantic Federation's line then an invasion would be necessary, and the girl would have to be killed during the assault. It would turn her into a martyr for her people, but that would only be a temporary setback. Regardless of which direction events with, the Athha line would be extinguished, and as the second most powerful noble house in Orb the Seirans would be able to seize the reins of power. With their ascension Orb's independence would be a thing of a past; it would be absorbed into the Earth Alliance as part of Djibril's broader plan.

This war would not just end with the elimination of the Coordinators. Djibril planned to accomplish what no other man in history had done; to bring the entire Earth Sphere under his rule. Since the end of the Bloody Valentine War he had worked tirelessly to prepare both LOGOS and the Earth Alliance for the start of a second war, and this time he intended to see the fight through to its glorious conclusion. He would not make the same mistakes as Azrael; he _would _be victorious.

However, ultimate victory was still quite some ways off. For now there were the troublesome details of the present to tend to. He returned his full attention to the admiral and proceeded to do just that.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, Admiral," he said, "but Desperado's Winds of Destruction are still at the Pearl Harbor base, right?"

The admiral nodded. "That's right, my lord."

"Have they been causing any trouble with the rank and file troops stationed there?" asked Djibril.

"We've had reports of a few scuffles," West replied, "but no serious incidents."

Djibril supposed that was about as good a report as he could expect on that matter. Desperado Enforcement LLC wasn't the only Private Military Company that the Earth Alliance had under contract, and studies of past interactions between standard military personnel and the hired guns had shown that a certain amount of friction inevitably developed between the two groups. Djibril was no psychologist, but he could still take a good guess as to the cause of the occasional altercations that broke out between the regular forces and the PMCs; the Earth Alliance soldiers doubtlessly took a dim view of the mercenaries since they were fighting for a paycheck rather than any sense of patriotism, while the contractors considered themselves better than the rank and file troops due to their combination of special privileges, looser chain of command, and higher salary.

_A bit troublesome_, he mused, _but as long as they're able to cooperate on the battlefield then the occasional fistfight is meaningless in the grand picture. Whether they are soldiers of a nation or dogs of war, they are first and foremost men of violence. When viewed through that lens, I suppose that a physical altercation would be the most natural way for them to vent any frustrations._

"Well," said Djibril after a moment, "as long as both parties are ultimately kept in line, I think that we can afford a little roughhousing between rivals."

If the Admiral had thoughts to the contrary he wisely kept them to himself. "Very well, my lord."

"Let's move on," said Djibril, "Have you spoken to Colonel Nazara recently?"

West nodded. "Yes, my lord. We just spoke earlier this morning, actually. A standard status update, nothing more."

"I see," said Djibril, "Regarding that status update, did it by any chance mention our nuclear arsenal?"

"Yes, my lord," said the Admiral, "The missiles are ready to be deployed at a moment's notice. Final adaptations for the mobile suit-mounted launchers are complete. They can be fitted to any of our combat units."

Djibril grinned. "_Excellent_. That's the best news I've heard all day, Admiral. Thank you for that."

"You're welcome, my lord," the Admiral replied.

"Do you have anything else that you wish to report?" asked Djibril.

"Not at this time," said West.

Djibril nodded. "Then you are dismissed, Admiral."

Djibril didn't even wait for the Admiral to respond before cutting the feed. He sat in silence for a moment before tapping a few keys on the side of his chair. Now it wasn't just one monitor on the wall that came to life, but several of them. None of them were for communicating with anyone. Instead they simply showed news broadcasts.

As was to be expected, the primary story for today was still the press conference from the Atlantic Federation Senate committee, even if the event itself had already ended. Djibril was pleased to see that the networks were also reporting on the anti-Coordinator rallies that were taking place across the country, a spectacle that Djibril only expected to grow as time went on.

"Ah, the _hoi polloi_," he said softly, "Their passions and prejudices far outweigh their intellects. It's all too easy to stir them up. Such useful pawns."

A classic saying went that fear led to anger, anger to hate, and hate to suffering, but in Djibril's eyes that was not necessarily true. Hate led only to the suffering of those who were the objects of that hatred, and if they were too weak to fight back with hatred of their own then they deserved to suffer. For those who controlled events like himself, the proper sequence would be more along the lines of fear leading to anger, anger to hate, and hate to _power_.

And hatred had given him _plenty _of power.

Djibril was no warrior. Whether it was in hand-to-hand combat or mechanized warfare, his skills in the art of battle were nonexistent. However, his ability to manipulate the deep seated fears and prejudices of others had given him strength far beyond that of simpleminded soldiers. He was no brawler; he was the one that pulled the brawlers' strings. From the rank and file troops to officers high and low, every soldier in the Atlantic Federation and the broader Earth Alliance was nothing more than a puppet to him, just like the President and the Senate were his playthings on the political field.

Soon the world would once again be engulfed in the fires of war, and it was with no small amount of pride that Djibril took satisfaction in knowing that it would be a war of his making. The Coordinators could talk as much as they wanted to about how their minds could process and react to data far faster than those of Naturals, but they were completely unaware that they were now being outmaneuvered by one of those 'slow-minded Naturals' that the late Patrick Zala had been so publicly dismissive of.

And they would remain unaware until their colonies were purged by nuclear fire.

….

**October 19****th****, C.E. 73**

"Thanks for coming over on such short notice, everyone," said Andrew Waltfeld as he and Aisha led the way into the conference room.

"Well," said Heero as he and Murrue followed him in along with the others, "some of us live here anyway, so it's not exactly out of the way."

"I'm just glad that you gave Heero time to clean up first," said Murrue, winking at the Perfect Soldier, "He kind of needed it after that flight."

Aisha laughed. "Oh, I bet he did! No one ever smells good after an overnight recon flight."

Heero wasn't about to fight either of the two ladies on that point. The shower he'd taken after returning Adaline's Wraith to the _Dominion _had felt _very _good. The hours on end that he'd spent in the mobile suit's cockpit hadn't done him or his flight suit any favors, so he was relieved that the Desert Tiger had at least allowed him a brief period to wash and change before having everyone gather for the meeting.

The conference room they were gathering in was actually below the mansion. It was part of a substantial underground bunker complex that was known only to Terminal insiders. Constructed and maintained by Morgenroete employees handpicked by Erica Simmons for their loyalty and dedication to Terminal's cause, it was a very sophisticated fortification. It wasn't just a shelter or a place to hold clandestine meetings. There was a network of tunnels that led to hidden exits at several points on the estate grounds in case a covert escape was required, and it also included a hardened communications and monitoring center that could withstand an EMP blast, a well stocked armory, enough rations and other consumables to last several people at least a year, an intricate ventilation system that not only kept fresh air flowing but also was capable of screening for airborne toxins and nerve agents, and a fortified hangar with room for no less than a dozen mobile suits.

"I'm just glad he made it back in one piece, even if he reeked," said Shemei, smirking at Heero, "I can't lose my friendly rival, after all."

"The data you forwarded to us was great, Heero," said Eric, "and it's one of the reasons why Andrew decided to call this meeting today."

"It better be worth the work it's going to take to get the B.O. out of my cockpit," said Adaline, "I've got no problem with Heero borrowing my mobile suit, but next time he wants to take it for a long flight like that he can clean the cockpit himself."

"Oh, lighten up, Adaline," said Priscilla, "It's not like any of us come out of our machines any cleaner after a prolonged mission."

"Besides," said Lan, "we're just the pilots. We don't handle the cleaning; that's what the maintenance staff is for."

"Don't let the crews that take care of your Wraith hear that," said Quatre with a chuckle, "They might make you start paying them for it."

Lan grimaced. "Oh, man, totally didn't think of that. Guess I'll keep my mouth shut then."

"How long are we going to be down here?" said Duo, "I'm not exactly a fan of big meetings, even if they're in a place as nice as this."

"You can always fall asleep," Trowa deadpanned, "We _might _tell you what you missed when you wake up."

Behind them, La Flaga chuckled. "I know how you feel there, Duo. Give me a mobile suit fight over one of these conferences any day."

"Don't encourage him," said Natarle, pinching him on the cheek, "This is important, so you'd better not doze off. If you do I'll flip your chair over."

"All right, all right!" said La Flaga, smiling despite the pinching, "You're just ruthless sometimes, you know that?"

Natarle smirked. "Someone has to keep you in line."

"Tipping his chair might be going a bit too far," said Lacus from the rear, sounding a bit concerned.

Heero then heard Kira laugh. "It's fine, he can take it."

"Is it wrong that part of me is hoping she does that at some point?" came the voice of Erica Simmons from the back, "It would certainly liven things up a bit."

"Perhaps," said Kisaka with a chuckle, "but we should really keep things professional here."

"Speaking of staying professional," said Waltfeld, "Let's get this meeting underway, all right?"

"Sounds good," said Heero as he and Murrue took seats at the table, "We've got a lot to cover."

"That we do," said Eric as he and the others sat down.

Sitting around a table like this reminded Heero of the conferences they'd had on board the _Eternal _during the last war. This conference room had actually been designed in a similar manner to the one on the stolen ZAFT warship, but it was significantly larger. Like the one on board the _Eternal_, the table had a built-in hologram projector along with a matching unit in the ceiling to allow for detailed three dimensional imaging, and while the projectors were inactive at the moment Heero was sure that they'd be seeing their fair share of use in short order.

"Well," said the Desert Tiger after a moment, "I'm assuming everyone here's seen clips of the Senate press conference from yesterday, right?"

"Hard to miss it," said Shemei.

Kira nodded. "I didn't catch it live, but they replayed plenty of footage from it over the day."

"It seems like that was the only story anyone in the world cared about yesterday," said Lacus.

"With good reason," said Aisha grimly, "That press conference means that the chances of averting a war just took a nosedive."

"Is it really that bad?" asked La Flaga, "I mean, it definitely wasn't _good_, but you're making it sound like we're already at the point of no return here."

"We may well be," said Natarle with a sigh, "I've been watching the follow-up broadcasts, and it looks like even more rallies are being held across the Atlantic Federation than there were yesterday."

"I saw some of that too," said Priscilla, "It's not pretty."

"No kidding," said Adaline, "Looking at those, you'd think that Coordinators were the enemy of the world."

"Some of those signs the protesters were holding weren't exactly subtle," said Lan dryly, "We got it pretty bad right now."

Sitting to the left of her, Quatre put his hand on her shoulder. "Not all of the people in that country think that way about Coordinators, Lan. The press is just focusing on the loudest parts of the population."

Lan looked at him and smiled. "I know, Quatre."

_Those two seem to have gotten close recently_, Heero mused, _Duo said something about Quatre going out somewhere with Lan a few days ago. I wonder what happened…_

He pushed that thought aside. There were more important things to worry about at the moment than Quatre possibly hooking up with one of the Valkyrie's subordinates.

"The Atlantic Federation's put a lot of time and effort into shaping domestic opinion when it comes to Coordinators," said Eric, "I think it's safe to say those efforts have had a day like this in mind."

"There have been demonstrations and rallies outside the Atlantic Federation," said Andrew, "All of the Earth Alliance member states have experienced them to a lesser extent. However, the ones who push the hardest when it comes to an anti-Coordinator agenda are headquartered in North America, so it's no surprise that the rallies are the strongest there."

"I bet they're at their strongest in the Bible Belt," said Shemei, "Our kind's never been popular with the religious crowd."

Aisha chuckled ruefully. "A considerable understatement."

"I haven't been able to verify the details to that extent," said Eric, "but it wouldn't surprise me if your bet was right on the money."

Murrue sighed. "Atlantic Federation public opinion was never going to be on the side of the PLANTs in a situation like this, and there's nothing we can do to influence that one way or the other. What I'm more concerned about is their potential military moves in reaction to recent events."

Heero looked over at Eric, and the Wolf of the Far East nodded in recognition. "There's been an uptick in activity on that front, and Heero's recon flight has given us some critical new intel on that."

"Really?" said Kira, his eyes widening slightly, "What did you find?"

"I spent a considerable amount of time floating around over the Pearl Harbor naval base," said Heero, "I was able to confirm my suspicions; the Pacific Fleet is mobilizing."

"So soon?" said Lacus, her alright light complexion paling even further.

"Son of a bitch," growled La Flaga, "They're not even waiting for an official declaration of war!"

Natarle's eyes narrowed. "If they're mobilizing a surface fleet, then I bet the same thing is happening up in orbit."

"They're probably putting all their combat forces on alert," said Priscilla grimly.

"They must be preparing to march on Carpentaria," said Adaline, "That's the only ZAFT target within range of the Pacific Fleet, after all."

"They'll have a hard time taking it, even with their full fleet," said Lan, "It's pretty well fortified."

"It would be a protracted siege, but still doable," said Heero, "However, I doubt that Carpentaria is the only target of that fleet. That mobilization is aimed as much at Orb as it is at ZAFT. In a way, it's aimed at us as well."

Murrue nodded. "You're right. Cagalli's government can't openly acknowledge us, but it's more or less an open secret that our group operates out of both the Orb mainland and her facilities up at L3. By mobilizing the Pacific Fleet and using it as a threat against Cagalli's people along with ZAFT, they put us in a bind."

The Desert Tiger's good eye narrowed. "If we move the _Archangel _and _Dominion _to outer space, it leaves Orb more vulnerable to the Alliance's surface forces. Orb's official military could still act as a deterrent of sorts, but it wouldn't be nearly as potent as it is with the unspoken threat of Wing Zero and the rest of us backing it up."

"Our forces are divided," said Aisha, "_Eternal _and _Kusanagi _are up in space while our other two premier battleships are down here. It's served us well in the past, but with the Alliance now threatening Orb along with ZAFT it's become a liability."

"Shit," Shemei hissed, "Is there any way that we can get ourselves out of this mess? The Alliance might be mobilizing forces on the planet's surface, but if a new war does start you can bet your ass that their first target will be L5."

Eric sighed. "I talked to Andrew about that, but I'm afraid we're stuck. The situation's worse than you think, dear."

Shemei's eyes widened. "What are you talking about, Eric?"

"I got news from one of my sources within ZAFT before Heero returned from his recon fight," the Wolf replied, "The Alliance _is _mobilizing its space forces. Most of the activity is concentrated over the Moon; it's around the same spot where Azrael started mobilizing his armada for the final battle two years ago. However, there's a separate point that ships are also moving towards."

He tapped a few keys on the pad in front of him, and the surrounding lights dimmed while the holographic projectors on both the table and the ceiling came to life. The flashes of light quickly morphed into a map of the Earth Sphere. The Moon, L1, and L2 were bathed in red, while Orb space out at L3 was yellow and L5 was blue. There was also a small blue dot out at L4 representing the Armory One colony. Scores of other dots, each one bearing one of those three colors, were scattered around the map; they stood for warship squadrons and patrol groups.

Heero's eyes narrowed as he immediately zeroed in on one particular group of red dots. It wasn't large enough to be a full fleet, but its position was ominous; it was just outside the orbital Debris Belt, and it was about halfway between L1 and L3.

_Not good_, he thought, _I've got a feeling I know what that's about…_

Heero wasn't the only one that picked up on it; he saw Trowa lean in a little closer, and he saw that his gaze was on that exact same point. "That Alliance force by the Belt is out a little too far."

"Yeah," said Duo, "and it looks a little too big to be just a patrol group."

"What's the deal with that?" asked Quatre.

"Good eyes," said Eric, "I should've expected you guys to catch that as quickly as you did. I've got no proof, but my hunch is that it's going to be the base of a force the Alliance will direct at L3. They did attack the Elysium colony in the last war, after all; both that colony and the Eden habitat have plenty of Coordinators for them to target."

"Plus we've got forces of our own out there," said Shemei, "Bastards aren't leaving anything to chance this time."

"How many ships do you think they'll devote to that force?" asked Waltfeld, "Since L5's got to be their top priority I doubt they can send too many ships out that way."

"They won't have to," said Eric, "My guess is that this force is just to keep the Orb space fleet, and our forces in that area by extension, from making a move when the Earth Alliance fleet heads towards the PLANTs."

"They're trying to block out any outside factors as fast as they can," said Aisha, "They want the opening clash to be a straight up Alliance vs. ZAFT fight."

"And it looks like they're going to get their way," said Natarle grimly, "I don't see how we can make any moves of our own with the Earth forces arrayed like this."

"Damn it," growled La Flaga, "So what, we just sit back and watch them attack the PLANTs? We can't do that!"

"There has to be something that we can do!" cried Kira.

Eric held up his hands. "Calm down! You guys are forgetting that L5's not exactly defenseless here. The ZAFT Navy may not be as large as it was at the height of Zala's power, but it's still no slouch in a fight. The Earth forces outnumber them, but numbers alone aren't a guarantee of victory; what our little group pulled off in the last war is proof enough of that."

"It's not numbers that are a cause for concern," said Lacus, "It's what the Earth Alliance fleet might bring with them if they attack the PLANTs."

"She's right," said Adaline, "If the Atlantic Federation still hates Coordinators enough to try to start another war, do you really think they abided by the nuclear disarmament clause of the Treaty of Junius Seven?"

"When the Earth forces launched their nuclear strike during the final battle of the last war, we were the ones who had the capability to stop them," said Priscilla, "ZAFT wasn't able to intercept the missiles."

Lan nodded. "Unless they've got some new METEOR units up their sleeves, along with mobile suits and pilots that are compatible with them, they've got no way to defend against nukes."

Quatre looked down in thought. "You know, you would think that even with the limitations of the treaty ZAFT would still take precautions against such a strike, especially given the Bloody Valentine Tragedy and what happened in the final battle of the war. Such countermeasures wouldn't constitute a treaty violation in and of themselves, right?"

"If nothing else, ZAFT's pretty tech savvy," said Duo, "Their new battleship and mobile suits are proof enough of that."

Trowa nodded. "I find it hard to believe that the current administration has given no thought whatsoever to means to defend against a nuclear strike, especially given the advanced technology at ZAFT's disposal."

Eric smiled. "You boys are getting ahead of me. Yes, ZAFT has spent considerable resources since the last war developing countermeasures against another possible nuclear attack. One of my sources within the L5 government has indicated to me that they've actually succeeded in developing an effective defense, although they couldn't give me many details."

Shemei raised an eyebrow. "Really? I'm surprised the government didn't make a public announcement about a development like that."

"Me too," said Aisha, "You'd think they'd use such a device as a means of deterrence."

"And deterrence doesn't work if your enemy doesn't _know _that you have such a capability," said Waltfeld, his brow furrowing in thought, "So why hide something like this?"

"Perhaps whatever technology they've developed is still experimental," said Murrue, "They may only have a prototype available and want to wait for the public debut until it has entered mass production."

"Or they're trying to make the Alliance think that they're vulnerable," said Duo.

Adaline raised an eyebrow. "Why would they do that? L5's the heart of PLANT territory; the last thing they'd want would be for the enemy to think that they've got an opening to attack."

"Not necessarily," said Trowa, "It depends on their ruler's agenda."

"You mean Durandal?" said Priscilla, "I know his program out at L4 with Armory One and the new battleship and mobile suits can be interpreted as a provocative gesture, but I have a hard time imagining him wanting to start another war and have L5 be attacked."

"Normally I'd agree with that sentiment," said Quatre, "However… if Durandal _does _have some sort of countermeasure against the Earth Alliance's nukes, he might be keeping it secret so that his enemy uses those weapons early. If they bring them out at the start of a conflict and he's able to somehow neutralize them, he'd be removing one of his foe's trump cards right off the bat."

"That's pretty devious," said Lan, "but also pretty damn risky. I mean, if you think about it that way, then he's pretty much using all of L5 as _bait_."

"Indeed," said Erica Simmons, "The potential for utter catastrophe is quite real in such a scenario. If that _is _indeed his plan, then he would have to have a very high level of confidence in whatever countermeasure ZAFT has devised."

"I don't care how certain Durandal might be," said Kisaka, "Even if he's got the chance to remove the Alliance's nukes from the equation early, it's still not worth risking the lives of his entire civilian population for."

"That's the conclusion _we _might come to," said Heero grimly, "but I don't think Durandal see things in the same light as us."

"That's right," said Murrue, looking at him thoughtfully, "You _did _speak to him at length during your time on the _Minerva_. If anyone of us here would have some insight into how his mind might work, it's you, Heero."

Heero shook his head. "We only talked once in private. I wouldn't put too much stock in it."

"I disagree," said Eric, "I know how analytical and observant you can be. You can glean quite a bit of insight from a single encounter, Heero; don't pretend otherwise."

"I'm with Eric on this one, Heero," said Shemei, "You must've picked up _something _from him."

Heero closed his eyes for a moment before responding. "He's a man with a vision, and one that goes beyond merely the PLANTs. When we spoke aboard the _Minerva_ he said that he wanted to create a world where the likes of Patrick Zala and Muruta Azrael couldn't seize power again. He wasn't just blowing smoke; whatever his real plans are, they really do encompass the Earth Sphere as a whole."

"Ambitious to say the least," said Kisaka, "Does Orb play into his vision at all?"

"If it does, he never mentioned it directly," Heero replied, "He was pretty vague overall."

"While I'll be the first to say that the world would've been better off without Zala or Azrael trying to realize their mad dreams," said Andrew, "I don't know how to feel about Durandal trying to build a new world. Hell, outside of his public political career I don't know much about him at all."

"A man who keeps his true intentions veiled," said Aisha, looking worried, "Whatever moves he ends up making will be much harder to predict than those of the Earth Alliance."

"Is he really the one we need to be worrying about right now?" said La Flaga, "I mean sure, the guy might be fishy, but he's not the one that's threatening to start another war."

Natarle nodded. "That's true. However, who can say what he'll do once hostilities commence? He may not instigate the conflict, but he may very well try to take advantage of it."

"He wouldn't be the first," Quatre chimed in, "When the Earth Sphere's in a state of war, the rapidly shifting circumstances are prime conditions for someone who wants to their own agenda. With the people fearing whether or not the conflict will arrive on their doorsteps and looking for some sense of safety, a leader can get away with much more than he could during peacetime."

"It sounds like you're speaking from experience," said Lan, looking at him curiously.

"He is," said Trowa.

Duo chuckled. "That's putting it mildly. Man, I wonder what Treize and Zechs would've made of the mess we've found ourselves in now."

"Those two again?" said Adaline, raising an eyebrow, "I've heard Heero mention them before."

"Those guys were big shots in your old war, right?" asked Priscilla.

Heero nodded. "Yes, and for much of that conflict the entire world was dancing to the tune they played, especially in the final campaign. I don't know if Durandal's on their level, but if he isn't I doubt it would be for lack of trying."

"Interesting," said the Desert Tiger with a smirk, "Sounds like he's pretty cunning if that's your impression of him."

"He's one that we should watch carefully," Heero replied, "but I can't say much more beyond that."

"Speaking of people that we need to watch out for," Eric chimed in, "I was reviewing the footage Heero sent in from his recon flight before the meeting, and I found something pretty interesting."

He tapped a few keys on the pad in front of him, and the image on the hologram projectors shifted. A large hangar and a decent sized section of tarmac appeared, along with a heavy transport plane with a crimson skull set within a diamond painted on the tail. There was a group of four people standing next to the plane, and the Wolf of the Far East quickly zoomed in on them. The group was composed of three men and one woman, and Heero instantly recognized this particular bit of footage from his recon mission and the people in front of him.

_The mercenaries_, he mused, _I was wondering when Eric would get to them…_

Murrue leaned forward in her chair next to Heero. "That man with the sword… that's Samuel Rodrigues, right? The Desperado pilot that Wufei dueled in the Debris Belt and over the Junius Seven ruins?"

"One and the same," said Eric, "The people with him are Desperado pilots as well. The big bald guy's Sundowner, their lead field commander. The man with the cybernetic visual aid is Monsoon, and the woman is Mistral. They're the four Winds of Destruction; Desperado's top mobile suit pilots."

"All four gathered in one place?" said Shemei, her eyes widening, "The Atlantic Federation must be serious about mobilizing the Pacific Fleet if they've got their mercenary heavy hitters operating with it."

"Heero," said Andrew, "did you spot any other PMCs at the Pearl Harbor base during your mission?"

Heero nodded. "I saw at least two drones with Werewolf insignia flying patrol, along with a transport jet with the same logo; probably contracted to help with base security. There was also what looked like an amphibious assault transport with Marlin markings. They could probably deploy an infantry company off of it, with maybe a few light vehicles as well. Desperado was the only PMC I saw that looked like they'd brought their heavy weapons, though; that plane the Winds were standing by was the same model as the new mobile suit transport jets the Atlantic Federation started producing after the war."

"They've probably got other contractor groups gearing up at the rest of their main surface bases," said Murrue, "I'm sure they've got some of them up in orbit too."

"Man, this blows," said Adaline, scowling at the monitor, "I mean, I'm all for being paid to do something that you're good at, but being a gun for hire to a government with a history of committing war crimes? That's just low!"

"The PLANTs employ PMCs too, Adaline," Priscilla gently admonished, "and it's not like ZAFT was a paragon of virtue in the last war as well."

"That is kind of why we ditched them," Lan chimed in.

"Did the PLANTs hire PMCs in the last war?" asked Quatre, "I remember Heero mentioned a pair of mercenary pilots he fought in the closing months of that conflict, but from what I understand contract fighting appears to have been fairly limited."

"You're not wrong in that assessment," said Eric with a nod, "There were some scattered mercenaries active in the last war, acting either as solo freelancers or as small groups, but they weren't particularly widespread."

"That changed after the Treaty of Junius Seven was ratified," said Shemei, "The limitations placed on the armed forces of both the Earth Alliance and ZAFT meant that both sides had to look at new options to maintain a competitive edge over each other. Since nothing in the treaty accounted for the use of contract forces, both sides were pretty quick to engage with the existing mercenary organizations in this world. It was a boon to the private military sector; more commercial armed forces have been founded in the past two years than in the past hundred."

Duo whistled. "Damn. I know we've got our share of guns for hire in our world, but those guys are peanuts compared to what you're dealing with over here."

"They can't all be frontline units," said Trowa skeptically, "It'd be difficult for private groups to maintain the necessary equipment and weapons without some serious financial backing."

"You're right about that," the Desert Tiger replied, "Many of these groups operate in support capacity. You've got PMCs that assist with military policing duties, observation and recon, convoy security, and even ones that keep the main troops supplied. Hell, the Atlantic Federation even employs one company that's really just a bunch of cooks that specialize in meal prep for the rank and file."

Aisha shook her head. "Privatization of war... they're turning it into just another business market. I've heard the term 'green-collar' gain traction recently; it refers to anyone whose job is related to armed conflict but isn't a member of a nation's official army."

"I've heard that term as well," said Lacus somberly, "My father always said that there would be people that sought to profit from fighting, but I never imagined anything quite like this."

"Isn't there any way that we can put a stop to this?" asked Kira, "All these private military groups lining up behind one side or the other are just raising tensions even more."

"We already have enough enemies as it is," said Kisaka grimly, "The PMCs may be small fries compared to the national armies of the Earth Alliance and ZAFT, but it would not suit our purposes to pick a fight with that industry as a whole, even if their very existence runs counter to our cause."

Erica chuckled. "You know, in a way, our group's not too different from them. We are a private armed faction that's not officially affiliated with a nation's standing army, after all."

"Perhaps," said Heero, "but we're not hiring ourselves out to the highest bidder."

"Heero's right," said Murrue firmly, "We're not in this to make money, but to protect the people of the Earth Sphere as a whole."

Erica smiled. "I know. It was just an observation."

"While we're on the subject of PMCs," said Shemei, "Eric, does ZAFT have any particular heavy hitters from that industry on its payroll?"

Eric nodded. "A few. Maverick Security Consulting is one of the big names on the list. The bulk of their operations are actually focused around running training programs and rear guard security of important facilities, but they've got a few frontline units too. Their best mobile suit pilot's a veteran of the last war, and from what little information I've been able to pick up on him I bet he could give 'Jetstream Sam' of the Alliance's Desperado group a good fight."

"Which means he might be able to do the same for us as well," said Duo with a smirk, "I'll have to keep my eyes open for the guy."

"Any other groups of note?" asked Trowa.

"Raven Sword, for starters," Eric replied, "ZAFT's got them handling behind-the-lines military policing duties so they can transfer more of their soldiers to full combat squads. Praying Mantis is another one. Their forces are split; ZAFT's got some of their units supplementing security at their shipyards, while others are operating down at Carpentaria and Gibraltar performing reconnaissance and local intelligence gathering. Both companies have very limited frontline capabilities; I doubt we'll be meeting either of them on the battlefield directly, but we could tangle with them if we do an infiltration op. They may be guns for hire, but both companies have reputations for professionalism and discipline, so don't take them lightly."

Quatre chuckled. "If anyone's going to do infiltration ops, it'll probably be us. We've got plenty of experience with that, after all."

Duo smiled. "No kidding."

"We do seem to have a knack for those," said Trowa.

"We'll deal with them if and when we come across them," said Heero, "We know that the Earth forces are on the move. What about ZAFT?"

"They're prepping too, although no official muster order's gone out yet," Eric replied, "Shore leaves have been cancelled and the Defense Council is reinforcing the line along the Alliance's most likely attack vector. The _Gondwana_'s anchoring the line, and they've moved two of the surviving _Orizaba_-class carrier/dreadnoughts there as well."

"Can they afford to do that?" asked Shemei, "The fleet's nowhere near as big as the armada Zala assembled in the last war; their forces have to be stretched thin just protecting the homeland."

"That's true," Andrew acknowledged, "but if the Alliance sends an attack force ZAFT's long range patrols will pick it up with time to spare. The Defense Council won't have any problems shifting fleet units if the Alliance doesn't take the most direct route to the PLANTs."

"What about our forces?" asked Aisha, "We're already in a tight spot thanks to the Alliance mobilizing the Pacific Fleet. What's our move, Andy?"

The Desert Tiger and the Wolf of the Far East shared a nod before the former spoke. "For now, our focus is defense. We can't move to aid L5 with the way things stand, so we're going to have to trust Eric's intel on ZAFT's countermeasure regarding the Alliance's nukes. With the way we're positioned, our most effective roles will be to protect the Orb mainland and the colonies."

"And if the Alliance is able to overcome ZAFT's countermeasure?" asked Lacus nervously.

"Then millions will die," Heero replied grimly, "but our hands are tied. We're outnumbered and outgunned. We can't be everywhere at once; we have to pick the fights that we can make the most difference in, and sometimes that means we have to make some tough calls."

Murrue sighed. "Heero's right. ZAFT will have to defend the PLANTs, and we will have to place our faith in whatever countermeasure they've cooked up. Both the Orb mainland and the L3 colonies have substantial Coordinator populations even after the events of the last war, and we know that the Alliance will be targeting them for extermination. These are the people that we have the best chance at protecting right now."

"At least we can be reasonably sure that the Alliance is the only party in this war with genocide on the agenda," said Eric with a grim chuckle, "Durandal's true motives and plans may be somewhat of an enigma, but I know enough about the man to say with confidence that he's not cut from Patrick Zala's cloth. Extermination of Naturals isn't his endgame. If it were then his moves would've been much more provocative up to this point."

"So," said Kisaka, "we focus our efforts on the Alliance until we know more about Durandal's objectives. Works for me."

"What do we tell Lady Cagalli?" asked Erica, "Orb reconnaissance forces don't go nearly as far north as Heero did last night; she likely has no idea that the Atlantic Federation is massing their Pacific Fleet."

"Kisaka can update her on that," said Andrew, "You see her more than the rest of us, so her meeting with you won't draw too much attention."

Kisaka nodded. "I'll handle that later today."

"What about Athrun?" asked Kira, "He should be in the PLANTs by now. Shouldn't we contact him?"

Eric shook his head. "We have no way to set up a secure communications link with him. I could have one of my informers find him and make contact, but I don't want to risk them being discovered by ZAFT."

"Athrun was the one that decided to go to the PLANTs," said Shemei, "Kira, you said that he thought that would be the place that he could make the biggest difference, right? I think we can trust him to do what he feels is right, and to warn us if Durandal's got something up his sleeve."

"Athrun's not the only one who's with ZAFT right now," said Lacus as she turned to Heero, "Chang Wufei remains with the _Minerva_, correct?"

Heero nodded. "Yes, but I don't think trying to make an intelligence asset out of him would be wise."

"No kidding," said Duo, shaking his head, "That guy's way too prideful to be a spy."

"He would likely be offended if we made such an attempt," said Trowa.

"Still, we should at least try to make contact with him," said Quatre, "If nothing else we can still share with him what we've learned about the Alliance forces."

"If any of you want to get a message to him, that's your call," said Heero.

"Having you guys here does give our capabilities a considerable boost," said Andrew with a smile, "I know that this isn't your world and you didn't come here for our battles, but we could definitely use your help."

"Beyond aiding you in returning home, I'm afraid we don't have much to offer you as a reward," said Erica, "I doubt any money we could give you would be worth much in your world."

Duo chuckled and shook his head. "Don't worry about it. Besides, I'd feel bad if I cut and ran just before the shit hits the fan. I can't let Heero be the only one out there representing us Gundam pilots!"

"This may not be our home," said Quatre, "but it's clear that Heero considers it to be his. Given what he did for Earth in the final battle of our war, the least that we can do is help him in securing his home before we return to ours."

"I am curious to see what other differences there are between this world and our own," Trowa chimed in, "I'm not opposed to staying longer, and we certainly can't turn our backs on people who could be targeted by a global superpower."

"Thank you so much," said Lacus, bowing her head, "I promise that we shall never forget your generosity."

Kira smiled. "You guys must really be good friends with Heero if you're willing to dive into another war for him."

"Yeah, well, he'd better not push his luck," said Duo, smirking at Heero, "You get one war out of us, and then we head home. You got that, buddy?"

Heero shrugged. "It's your call. Just don't forget what I told you before; I'm _not _heading back with you."

"You've already made that abundantly clear," said Trowa.

"Yeah, but it's Duo we're talking about here," said Quatre with a laugh, "If Heero doesn't hammer the point home enough who knows what he'll do?"

Duo folded his arms. "Classy. I thought you were supposed to be on my side here, Quatre. What gives?"

Quatre shook his head. "I never said anything about being on your side, Duo."

Duo scowled. "Now that's just low."

Murrue laughed. "You boys are a regular comedy act, aren't you?"

"Not intentionally," said Quatre, "but it certainly does seem that way whenever Duo's around."

Duo grinned. "That's because you guys would be a bunch of boring stiffs without me! Someone's gotta be the icebreaker in the group."

"A humorous Grim Reaper," said Shemei with a smirk, "Now there's something you don't see every day."

"I think we'll need that humor to keep our spirits up in the days ahead," said the Desert Tiger, "I doubt the future's going to hold much good news for us for a while."

Aisha nodded. "You can say that again. Both superpowers on the move, gearing up for war… this won't be a walk in the park."

"Long odds and huge stakes?" said Adaline, "Sound like old times to me."

"Indeed," said Priscilla with a nod, "It does invoke a certain sense of déjà vu."

"You'd think the bad guys would've learned their lesson after the beating we gave them last time," said Lan with a smile, "but if they need us to bust their heads again, I'm all for obliging them!"

"There is still a chance, however small, that it might not come to that," said Lacus, "However, should the worse come to pass, I am prepared to do my part to protect the people of our world."

"As am I," said Kira, and Heero was sure that he was holding the hand of the songstress under the table.

"I can't say what direction the Orb government will take in all this," said Kisaka, "Lady Cagalli will do her best to keep us on the right course, but I doubt the Seirans will go along with her. Still, even if her government is undermined from within, Terminal will not lose its support; I know plenty of officers in the Orb military who will back our efforts when the time comes."

"Even if Lady Cagalli is sabotaged by her fellow nobles," said Erica, "Morgenroete does not face the threat of subversion. The company's core is fully behind the endeavors of Terminal, and it will remain committed to this group's cause come hell or high water."

Eric nodded and stood, and Heero and the others joined him. "The course of events may well be decided over the next few days. I'll monitor things as close as I can through my network, but we have to be ready for anything."

"I won't order everyone to go to the ships at this time," said Andrew, "but from this point onward, everyone in Terminal is now on standby status. I know Erica's crews have the _Archangel _and _Dominion _ready to go at a moment's notice, and the same goes for our mobile suits. We must all be prepared to deploy the instant we get news from Eric's network. Is that clear?"

Heero nodded along with the others.

"Good," said Andrew, "That's all for now. Meeting adjourned."

….

_One mess after another_, thought Cagalli as she listened to her ministers and fellow nobles drone on and on in yet another meeting, _Things are moving too quickly, and now _this_? Damn it, Unato… I _know _that this is your doing!_

The 'this' in question was the surprise announcement that Cagalli had gotten just a few minutes ago; the official Orb inquiry into the Break The World Incident was nearly complete. Cagalli had expected it to be weeks until findings would be presented, and she suspected that the commission had been pressured into rushing its work. Cagalli had made it clear that she had expected a thorough investigation, but with the Atlantic Federation's outrageous Senate press conference forcing an escalation of events it appeared that someone had decided that Orb's inquiry needed to pick up its pace… and come to a certain set of conclusions.

It was an open secret that Unato and Yuna had social and economic ties with members of the Atlantic Federation government and business elite. Since they were part of one of the five Orb noble families Cagalli's ability to curtail their activities in that regard were limited. She had tried to rationalize it by convincing herself that their connections would come in handy for diplomatic purposes, and indeed they had been useful in the past. However, it was now clear that those connections were a double-edged sword, and now the blade was cutting in her direction.

"We have to be prepared to issue a statement," said Unato, "Lady Cagalli, do you concur?"

Cagalli glared at him. "No, I do not. Our commission hasn't had enough time to conduct a thorough and proper investigation. Any sort of statement now would be premature on our part."

Yuna chuckled. "Clearly the Atlantic Federation disagrees with your assessment."

"They're hardly an impartial party in all this," Cagalli shot back, "We all know that their findings were politically motivated and intentionally provocative!"

"Perhaps," Unato replied, "but we have no means by which to prove that."

"Giving the inquiry more time to gather evidence _will _change that," said Cagalli firmly, hoping that she sounded more confident than she felt.

"Time is a luxury that we may no longer have," said Yuna, "I'm sorry, Cagalli, but if Orb does not make its position known soon then other powers might force our hand."

Cagalli's eyes narrowed. "_Other powers_? Or just the Atlantic Federation?"

"Our position is precarious," said Unato, "With Carpentaria on one side and the Pacific Fleet on the other, our homeland is faced with threats on two fronts. The same could also be said of our colonies and resource satellites at L3."

"The only threat that I see," Cagalli replied, "is the posturing of the Atlantic Federation. The Americans don't dictate the foreign policy of our country!"

"No, of course not," said Yuna, and while he may have been going for a conciliatory tone the look on his face did not match his words, "We all value Orb's independence just as much as you do, Cagalli."

"However," said Unato, "we cannot pretend that the policies of other nations have no impact on ours. That especially applies to those that have greater military power than us."

"Our forces have recovered from the losses they suffered in the last war," Cagalli retorted, "and they've been improved thanks to new technological advances courtesy of Morgenroete. The Earth Alliance cannot fight us and ZAFT at the same time."

"They managed it well enough in the last war," Yuna quipped.

"With a much larger force," Cagalli immediately shot back, "They can't field armadas on the level of those they deployed in the last war; the Treaty of Junius Seven has seen to that."

"The treaty has been beneficial in that respect," said Unato, his eyes narrowing, "but I'm afraid we must be realistic, Lady Cagalli. The Earth Alliance wants us in their camp, and if we do not act diplomatically towards them they may think of our desire for independence as belligerence."

"Act diplomatically," said Cagalli, "or bend the knee? My father and his cabinet didn't sacrifice their lives in the last war so that Orb might become a client state of the Earth Alliance!"

"No one's saying anything about submitting to the Earth Alliance," said Yuna with a smile, "If we approach them on friendly terms then a mutually beneficial partnership can no doubt be arranged."

"A partnership in a potential war against the PLANTs?" said Cagalli, disgusted at what she was hearing, "Absolutely not! The PLANTs have done nothing wrong, and I will not have Orb join the Atlantic Federation in acting as an aggressor state!"

"What would you have us do?" Unato growled, "Ally with ZAFT? The PLANTs are reviled by the people of Earth right now; us siding with them in any sort of way guarantees that Orb will face a heavy backlash."

Cagalli shook her head, quickly growing exasperated with where the meeting was heading. "I'm saying that we don't ally with either party, but stand by the evidence that our own inquiry presents! I will not allow us to be dragged into a war just because of the Americans' fear mongering!"

"The Atlantic Federation won't abide by that," said Yuna, "Cagalli, you've heard their rhetoric; from their point of view, if someone isn't with them, then they're by default against them. It's not the most elegant line of reasoning, but it's brutally simple. The Earth Alliance inflicted a great deal of damage and suffering upon Orb in the last war; the people rightly fear a repeat of that experience."

"I've gotten updates from our embassy in Washington, D.C.," said her Foreign Minister, a man in his late fifties by the name of Uchida Kosai, "The Atlantic Federation's State Department has made repeated overtures; they're becoming rather insistent on knowing the official stance of the Orb government in this matter. Our ambassador has informed me that the Atlantic Federation will react quite favorably to a press statement that would be in alignment with their position."

Another middle-aged, man, her Minister of International Trade and Industry, Makino Nobuaki, cleared his throat. "If we do come to an agreement with the Atlantic Federation over this matter, this would likely result in benefits beyond the diplomatic front. Our economy could grow substantially through a closer relationship with the Americans."

Cagalli couldn't believe what she was hearing. The nobles, her ministers… one by one, they were all suggesting what amounted to cooperation with a nation that now seemed hell bent on starting another world war. And why?

Because they were afraid.

_Cowards_, she silently fumed, _My father and _his _cabinet were willing to _die _for Orb's ideals rather than defile them by joining the Atlantic Federation in its crusade against Coordinators! Has the new generation of leadership really sunk this low?_

As Chief Representative of Orb, Cagalli had appointed most of the ministers that now sat at the table with her and the heads of the other noble families. Due to her inexperience in government, she had allowed her fellow nobles to make suggestions regarding candidates for key offices, and she had given their counsel due consideration alongside that of allies like Kisaka. Now that Orb found itself at a moment of potential crisis, however, their true natures were being revealed. She had given more weight to the counsel of her fellow nobles than she had initially realized, and now she was paying for it.

She was isolated. Yes, her friends in Terminal had her back, but she could not call upon them for government affairs; she couldn't even publicly acknowledge their existence without jeopardizing everything that they had worked so hard to build. The people before her now were not enemies that she could fight on the battlefield, and in fact should have been counted as allies and fellow servants of the people of Orb, but Cagalli realized now that she was actually surrounded by adversaries of another nature. She couldn't fight them with a mobile suit.

She didn't know _how _to fight them.

"Lady Cagalli," said the Foreign Minister, "Our embassy staff members are reporting that the Atlantic Federation President will likely be issuing an official statement tonight regarding the course of action his nation will take. Once that is done, they will expect a signal from Orb sooner rather than later."

Cagalli nodded, only half hearing him. Her ministers, her fellow nobles… they looked less like human beings now and more like circling hyenas. There was no one here that she could truly rely on.

Even her bodyguard, her _boyfriend_, was gone.

_Athrun_, she thought,_ I… I can't do this. Members of my own government want me side with the Earth Alliance against your people! I don't know what to do! I need help!_

"Lady Cagalli," said Unato, "We must prepare a response."

"A response?" she said bitterly, "Or a capitulation?"

"Cagalli," said Yuna with a smile, "it's not like that at all."

"How?" she snapped, her composure starting to unravel.

Yuna turned to the other nobles and ministers. "Perhaps we should recess for a little while. I imagine some fresh air will do us all some good."

Unato nodded. "Yes, I agree. Let's take a break, shall we?"

Cagalli stayed seated, hardly aware of the members of her cabinet heading for the exit. At the edge of her gaze she saw Yuna and Unato share a nod before the elder Seiran left the room. A few seconds later she was alone with her cousin, which was the last thing that she wanted.

Cagalli sighed once the door closed. "What do you want, Yuna?"

"Cagalli, you needn't be suspicious," he said as he walked over to her, "I just thought that you could use a bit of space. The meeting's been dragging on for quite a while, after all."

Cagalli stood up and headed towards a door that led to an open balcony. "Don't act like you're doing me a favor. I know that you're after something."

Yuna chuckled as he joined her on the balcony. "Cynicism does not become you, Cagalli. You're so much lovelier when you're leading our people with a smile."

"This is hardly the time for smiling," said Cagalli, "The world is on the edge of war, and you and your father want us to side with the provocative power."

Yuna shook his head. "Cagalli, I truly am sorry, but I fail to see how the Atlantic Federation has been provocative in this affair. It was Coordinators that attempted to drop the ruins of Junius Seven onto Earth, not Naturals. As the sole Coordinator-led nation in the Earth Sphere the PLANTs have a duty to keep their people in line."

"Those were renegades who tried to drop those ruins, and you damn well know that!" Cagalli snapped, "The PLANTs tried to stop them! I was there, in case you've forgotten!"

"I assure you that I haven't, Cagalli," Yuna replied, "but you must've seen just how paltry their force was, especially given the stakes. Were it not for the intervention of your… _friends _from the last war, the situation would've been catastrophic."

"We've been over this already," said Cagalli, "ZAFT had to scramble to assemble a force; that was the best they could do on such short notice. It's still more than what the Earth Alliance did."

"Perhaps," said Yuna, "but the people of the world are not pointing fingers at the Earth Alliance. They're pointing at the Coordinators. I imagine that they'll also start pointing at anyone who supports the Coordinators in due time. Even impartiality may be seen as tacit support in these times."

"I don't care," said Cagalli firmly, "Unless our inquiry is able to provide solid evidence that the PLANTs were involved in trying to drop the ruins onto Earth, I will not let Orb act against them. I will not condone any course of action that leads us to war."

Yuna smiled. "I've always admired that resolve of yours. I just hope that you're able to see the big picture. It wouldn't do for your resolve to be construed as simple stubbornness… or willful ignorance."

Cagalli glared at him. "What's _that _supposed to mean?"

Yuna sighed. "I'm sorry, Cagalli. I didn't want to bring this up again, but in times like this I fear I have no choice."

"Save the apologies and just spit it out already," said Cagalli.

"It's an open secret that your bodyguard is also your boyfriend," said Yuna, "and that he's a Coordinator. Given those circumstances, it's only natural for people to assume that you have a conflict of interest when dealing with the PLANTs."

"That has nothing to do with this!" Cagalli snapped, wanting nothing more than to punch her cousin right in the jaw at that moment.

"Others might not see it that way," said Yuna, "and I couldn't help but notice that he boarded a shuttle bound for L5 yesterday. There are all sorts of implications that people could imagine from an action like that at a time like this."

Cagalli's eyes narrowed. "So you're having him spied on?"

Yuna smiled. "That's such a crude way to put it. I prefer to think of it as looking out for your best interests, Cagalli."

"That's not the way _I _see it," said Cagalli, "and for your information, he went to L5 because he believed that he could do more to deescalate this crises from there than from Orb."

Yuna shook his head. "Please. He's nothing but your gun for hire. There's nothing that he could accomplish up there… unless he's acting as your personal emissary. If he were, well, I imagine that the Foreign Minister would not take kindly to you using your boyfriend to go around his back."

"That is _not _what his trip was about," said Cagalli firmly, "For your information, I didn't even want him to go! It was his decision, not mine!"

Yuna smirked. "Is that so? Well, then, I do wish him the best of luck… that is, _if _he's really trying to help resolve this crisis."

"What are you implying?" Cagalli growled, sorely tempted to throw him over the balcony.

"Well, he _was _once a soldier of ZAFT," said Yuna, "Maybe he turned against them in the last war, but that was over two years ago. Now that we're on the brink of war again, maybe he feels it's time to return to his people. Maybe your trust in him is misplaced, Cagalli."

That was it. In the blink of an eye, acting on nothing more than instinct, Cagalli slapped him across the face. It was quite satisfying to see her cousin's eyes widen in shock and alarm, but as much as she wanted to follow up she had to refrain; it would only cause problems if she beat her cousin to a bloody pulp.

"Cagalli…" said Yuna, struggling for words, "I… I can't believe you…"

"You'd better believe it," she said firmly, "and if you insult him like that again, I'll do a lot worse than slap you. I'll fight you and your father about politics until I go insane, but you leave _him _out of it. You got that?"

Yuna nodded. "Yes."

"Good," said Cagalli, looking out over the balcony and pointedly ignoring her cousin, "Now leave me be. I'd like at least a few minutes of peace, and I'm not going to find it with you around me."

Yuna smiled, but there was a dark look in his eyes that robbed the expression of any sincerity. "As you wish, Cagalli."

Cagalli sighed as he went back inside. Her cousin wouldn't forget what had just happened, and he'd probably tell his father about it. They'd find some way to make her pay for it. She'd known that, but she hadn't been able to restrain herself.

If Athrun were still here, _he _would've held her back.

"Damn it," she said softly, "Athrun, you idiot… why'd you have to leave me here alone like this? You don't belong up there anymore…"

_You belong down here…_

_ … with me._

….

"Hey," said a familiar female voice from behind him, "Care for some company, cutie?"

Quatre turned around and smiled as Lan joined him out on the back terrace of the estate. "If it's you, how can I resist?"

Lan returned his smile as she joined him at the railing and slipped her arm through his. "You can't."

Quatre chuckled as he looked back out at the ocean. "I suppose you're right."

The meeting from before still weighed heavily on his mind, but he was surprised at how the presence of the pretty and flirtatious Chinese Coordinator eased his concerns, even if it was just momentarily. He had no doubt that what had been discussed in the conference earlier was still fresh in her thoughts as well, but outwardly she showed no signs of it. Her composure was the same as always; relaxed and playful, with a hint of deviousness thrown in for good measure.

"You okay?" she asked, looking genuinely concerned.

Quatre nodded. "Yeah. I've just got a lot on my mind."

"Can't blame you there," Lan replied, "We got quite the load dropped on us today. Shit's going south, and it's going south in a hurry. Not exactly what I'd call fun times."

Quatre smirked. "You don't seem to be letting it get you down."

Lan shook her head. "Hey, don't get me wrong; I take stuff like impending war plenty seriously. I just don't see the point in stressing myself out over something that I've got no control over. If we have to fight, we have to fight. That's all there is to it, and I'll cross that bridge when I come to it."

Quatre smiled. "You've got a point. I guess I've always worried more than my friends when it comes to circumstances like this. It's hard to kick the habit."

"Nothing wrong with that," said Lan, "The way I see it, you've got a good head on your shoulders. You probably think things through way more than I do."

"I think that you're selling yourself short there," said Quatre, "Maybe you're a bit impulsive, but you strike me as plenty intelligent."

She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks. You really are a sweetheart, aren't you?"

Quatre could not help but blush. "So you keep telling me."

Lan winked. "Well, you keep proving me right. Speaking of sweetness, that was pretty touching how you and your buddies volunteered to stick around and help us out. You didn't have to do that, you know."

"Maybe," Quatre replied, "but we're not going anywhere for a while, so we might as well fight alongside you guys. Besides, I'd feel bad if I left knowing you were flying into a battle and I could've stuck around to help."

Lan smiled at him. "I've grown on you that much, eh?"

The blush returned in full force. "Well…"

He felt her fingers intertwine with his. "Relax, Desert Prince. You don't have to say anything."

_Yeah_, he thought, _I guess she's right. She's really gotten to know me… in more ways than one._

Had it really been just a week and a half ago that he had met her? It felt like so much longer. Ever since their date at the club and the events that had followed, Quatre hadn't spent a day without seeing Lan one way or another. He was still trying to come to terms with how she had worked her way into his heart in such a short amount of time, but he couldn't deny that she had done so quite effectively. She was so unlike any other woman that he had met before, and while he wasn't entirely sure if she was the kind of girl that his sisters' would've wanted him to hook up with, Quatre definitely didn't have any regrets about it.

Yes, she was flirty, seductive, and beautiful, but as he'd gotten to know her it felt like those traits were really just bonuses, not the main package. She was fun, quick with a joke or a quip, much smarter than she let people think, and had a spontaneous streak to her that so far had yet to fail in catching Quatre off guard and pulling him into something entertaining. Her talents as a mobile suit pilot and a fighter were beyond proven in his eyes, and it was quite something to find a woman who was not only capable of holding her own in his world of mobile suit and physical combat but actually seemed to thrive in that environment.

His mind kept going back to that fight with the club manager and his thugs. Quatre had just been focusing on keeping Lan and himself safe at the time, but even while he was fending off Junior's henchmen he hadn't been able to resist sneaking a few glances at Lan's share of the action. Needless to say, he'd been impressed. She'd been swift and precise, but it wasn't her moves that caught his attention so much as it was the _energy _that she had shown in the fight. She'd looked so _alive_ as she was giving her foes the thrashing that they deserved. Her eyes had gleamed with enthusiasm as she'd trounced one opponent after another, and it looked like she was having as much fun fighting Junior and his goon squad as she'd had when she was dancing with him.

She was, in short, a literally otherworldly woman, and Quatre was captivated by her.

It was going to be much harder than he'd originally thought it would be when the time for his inevitable departure came.

He banished that thought from his mind. He would deal with whatever heartache that brought when the time came. Right now he was here with her, and that was more than enough for him.

"So," she said, bringing his attention back to the present, "when the fighting starts... where will you be?"

Quatre raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Well," said Lan, "I'll probably be on the _Dominion _with my friends. If I know Heero he'll probably be on the _Archangel _with Murrue. Where are you going to fly from?"

Quatre smiled. "Well, I can't make any promises. Normally I'd say I'd be following Heero, but I think that depends on how things unfold this time around. If there's room on the _Dominion_ then would you mind if I tag along?"

Lan winked at him. "Well, I definitely wouldn't complain. Having you on the _Dominion _would certainly make things more interesting."

Quatre nodded. "All right. If I get the chance, I'll take it."

The two of them were quiet for a moment before Lan spoke again. "Hey… mind if I ask you something?"

"Go ahead," he replied.

"Do you ever get scared?" she said, "I mean, what we're probably about to fly into… it's not exactly going to be a walk in the park. If we fail… well, the body count's going to be pretty damn high."

"Of course I do," he said, "I think anyone who says they're not scared at a time like this is an idiot and a liar. I know my friends would agree with that."

Lan nodded and smiled. "I do too. So, how do you Gundam pilots deal with the pre-fight jitters?"

Quatre shrugged. "We've all got our own coping mechanisms. For Duo it's humor, martial arts for Wufei, and Heero and Trowa typically spend time double and triple checking their Gundams."

"What about you?" she asked.

Quatre smiled. "If I have the luxury of it, a nice cup of tea helps calm my nerves. Also, I like music."

"Anything in particular that you listen to?" asked Lan.

"Classical, really," said Quatre, "It feels even better when I get the chance to play it on the piano."

He saw her eyes widen slightly. "Wait, you play?"

Quatre nodded. "Yeah. Did I never tell you that?"

Instead of answering Lan grabbed his arm and started pulling him towards the house. "Come with me."

….

It was so like her; a completely impulsive move. Lan didn't have any sort of ulterior motives; she simply wanted to hear Quatre play, and she knew just where he could do it.

It only took a few minutes for her to take him upstairs and into a small studio that overlooked the sea. It was a very simple room, with nothing more than a white piano and a few chairs in it. Only a few people that Lan knew actually used it; Lacus in particular would usually play a few songs whenever she came over to visit. Lan was sure that Quatre had been shown this room before when he'd been given a tour of the place, but that was before he'd revealed that he could play the piano.

She smiled as she shut the door behind them. "Well, here we are."

Quatre looked at her. "You want me to play? Just like that?"

"What's the matter?" she asked, "Nervous? Does having a private audience give you shivers, Desert Prince?"

Quatre shook his head. "It's not that. It's just… I don't know what to play. I don't know what you'd like."

She stepped forward and gently brought her hand up to his cheek. "It's all right. I'd like anything that you'd play."

It was a rather tender gesture, and one that Lan knew was rather out of character for her. She didn't particularly mind. Quatre was a special guy, so she had no problem with being softer and sweeter with him in a private setting like this.

Quatre nodded and smiled. "Okay, then."

Lan sat down in a nearby chair and watched as Quatre approached the piano. He studied it for a moment before adjusting the bench and settling in. The young man then spent a few moments running his hands along the keys, familiarizing himself with an instrument that he probably hadn't been expecting to play today or at all during his time in the Cosmic Era for that matter.

"This is nice," he said, "It's very well crafted."

"Glad you like it," Lan replied, "Now, show me what you can do."

Quatre smirked. "Be patient. You don't just go right into a song with a beauty like this. You have to feel her out, first, get to know her. Besides, I still need to figure out what I want to play for you."

"Don't put too much thought into it, said Lan with a smile.

She saw him press a few keys, testing their sound and finding his bearings. Lan could see his confidence starting to build as he got a better feel for the instrument before him, and she was sure that she wouldn't have to wait much longer.

Quatre closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. When he opened them he looked her way and nodded before turning back to the piano.

He started on a soft and high note, and Lan watched in fascination as his fingers seemingly danced along the keys. The melody was light, smooth, and quite pleasant, but what enthralled Lan more than the music was just how easy Quarter was making it seem. Whatever nervousness he'd shown before had gone out the window; now he was in his element, and the steady increase in tempo reflected his newfound confidence.

Lan had no idea what song he was playing, and she didn't care. It was upbeat and relaxing, simple and pretty. There was a sense of innocence to the melody, and to Lan it felt like a reminder of more peaceful and carefree times. She saw Quatre begin to smile as he continued to play, and the song seemed to reflect whatever happiness he was feeling now.

_Never thought that I'd go for a guy like this_, she mused, a smile appearing on her face as well, _Quatre… you really are something else, you know that?_

It was a stark reminder of just how different their backgrounds were. Here was a guy that had been born into ultimate privilege, had been brought up as a member of the very top of society's upper crust, and had the world at his fingertips. However, despite that, he showed none of the arrogance or snobbery that one might expect someone born into such a high social class to have. Instead he was gentle, kind, and selfless to the point that he was willing to risk his life on the battlefield in order to build and protect a better world. As for her, she'd been born the bastard daughter of a crime boss and his mistress, made a Coordinator because her scumbag of a father had wanted her to be a living weapon. She had been raised and taught how to fight for the selfish and petty ambitions of her father, and yet she had shown the ultimate defiance by turning her back on the man, rescuing her mother and fleeing to the one place in the Earth Sphere she'd felt that they could truly be free. She had entered the armed forces with the initial intent of defending her new homeland, but as she met new friends and her war went on she had found new things to fight for; the people she cared for, and the wellbeing of the countless innocent lives that the two great superpowers were all too willing to slaughter.

The two of them had come from backgrounds that were about as opposed as one might find, and yet here they were now, together. They had met on the battlefield, and since then they had become friends, _more _than friends, and Lan for one couldn't be happier. Had someone told her a story like this before she would've dismissed it as just a fairy tale, but here she was, living what felt to be just like that.

It couldn't last forever, she knew that. The day would eventually come when Quatre would have to return to his world. Lan was a grown woman, and she could accept that. For now, though, that sad day seemed so far away, and it was the last thing that she wanted to think about at the moment. She just wanted to lose herself in Quatre and his music while she had the time and privilege to do so.

The song came to an end a couple minutes later. When it did Lan stood up and went over to Quatre, who was looking at her nervously from the piano bench.

"How was it?" he asked.

She smiled before leaning in to kiss him. "Beautiful."

"Oh," he said, smiling sheepishly and failing to hide his blush, "Well… thanks. I'm glad I haven't lost my touch."

"So am I," she replied with a wink, "Any chance I can get another one out of you?"

Quatre nodded. "All right."

Without further adieu, Lan went back to her chair and sat down. A few moments later Quatre started up his next piece, and she once again lost herself in the melody.

The eve of war would no doubt be upon them soon enough, and Lan would worry about that in due course. For now, thought, the Earth Sphere's growing crises seemed very, very far away. Right now there was only Quatre, his music, and her.

And that was all she needed.

….

"How's it look?" asked Murrue as her boyfriend stepped out of the Gundam's cockpit.

Heero nodded before closing up his machine. "Ready for action."

Murrue smiled as he walked over to her. "You know, you really don't need to worry so much about your machine. Erica's crews have always taken good care of it."

Heero shrugged. "Old habits die hard."

Murrue nodded. "I suppose so."

It wasn't just Heero that was tending to his Gundam; the secret underground hangar was rather busy today. Off to the right Murrue saw Trowa overseeing maintenance on Heavyarms Arsenal, while Duo was checking over Deathscythe Omega. The only missing pilot was Quatre, but if he was anything like his friends Murrue was sure that he'd be down here sooner or later, if he hadn't stopped by already.

She certainly couldn't blame Heero for wanting to make sure his machine was combat ready. Murrue hadn't been out to the _Archangel _yet, but she'd been keeping in touch with Erica's dock crews, and she knew Natarle had been doing the same with regards to the _Dominion_. She supposed that Terminal's current status reflected that of the rest of the world; they were on war footing now.

_We've always known that a day like this could come_, she thought solemnly, _and we've done our best over the past two years to prepare for it. Still, it's hard to see how anyone truly prepares for the onset of a new world war._

"Are you all right?" asked Heero, putting his hand on her shoulder.

She sighed; there was no point in lying to him. He knew her too well, and vice versa.

"Do we really know what we're getting ourselves into here?" she said, "I mean, I know that we've been planning for something like this as a contingency, and we've been monitoring the other powers to the best of our abilities, but still…"

"We can't really say for sure how things will play out," said Heero, "For all of our knowledge and hidden power, there's still far too much that we don't know about the forces at work here and what their next moves will be. Does that sound about right?"

Murrue forced a smile. "That's one way to put it."

Heero nodded. "I understand what you're feeling. No two global conflicts are ever exactly the same, after all. For all the experience we gained from the last war, we still can't say for certain what we're walking into here."

Murrue gave a hollow chuckle. "I've got one world war under my belt, and you've got two. You'd think that people like you and I would know what to expect more than most, but here we are with our doubts and fears."

"We _need _those doubts and fears," Heero replied firmly, "Without them we're reckless, and that's a good way to get killed."

Murrue smirked. "Reckless? _This_ coming from the man who took on Avalon and GENESIS head on? I'm not sure you know the meaning of the word, Heero."

The Perfect Soldier chuckled. "Either that, or my definition of it falls outside the normal one."

"That wouldn't surprise me," said Murrue as she kissed him on the cheek.

She then looked up at the imposing figure of his Gundam. "All of this strength, including the most powerful mobile suit in the world, and yet we're still facing an uphill fight. We're outnumbered to a ridiculous degree, and our enemies haven't been sitting idle when it comes to R&amp;D either."

Heero nodded. "We've only seen the vanguards of the forces that will be fighting this war. The full fleets have yet to take the field."

"I wonder what the world will be like when it's all over," said Murrue, "I thought that the Bloody Valentine war would've left enough of a mark on the Cosmic Era, but we're about to fly into another global conflict only two years out from the last one. Is this the fate of our world? One massive conflagration after the next? How are we supposed to build a life together in a world that's determined to tear itself apart?"

"By fighting with everything we have to protect it," said Heero firmly.

Murrue gave him a weak smile. "You make it sound so simple."

"It always has been for me," he replied, "The mission's always been the same; protect the innocent and the people that are close to me. It's the same for you, isn't it, Murrue?"

Murrue nodded. "I suppose it is. Still…"

"What is it?" he asked.

She met his gaze. "Heero, if I have to fight again, I can do it as long as I fight alongside you. I'm willing to give it my all, but… I don't want our lives to be _defined _by fighting. I want there to be something for us _beyond _fighting."

Heero nodded. "So do I. I don't intend to spend the rest of my life like this, Murrue. I want to reach the day that I can truly leave the battlefield behind, and I want to reach it with you by my side. I don't know how far into the future that day might be, but we _will _make it there."

Murrue smiled again, this time genuinely; if anyone knew how to encourage her, it was him. "And when we do? What do you want to do then, Heero?"

He looked down for a moment. "I'm… I'm not sure."

She reached out and caressed his cheek. "Well, whatever we do, we'll do it together. Our new life together is only two years old, Heero. It's still young, and I intend for it to grow."

Heero gave her a small smile in return. "So do I."

….

Sitting behind the desk in her office aboard the _Minerva_, Talia nodded as her Executive Officer made his report. "I see. How is the crew holding up?"

"Well enough at the moment," Arthur replied, "However, there is some… tension."

Talia chuckled ruefully. "No doubt thanks to our dear friends in the Atlantic Federation. Everyone knows that the President is due for his address concerning the incident up in orbit at any time now. Since what he says could very well push us into a new world war, I'd say that some tension is completely understandable."

"I agree, ma'am," said Arthur, "May I speak frankly?"

Talia smiled. "Of course. You know that I prefer that, Arthur."

Her XO nodded. "Thank you, ma'am. I believe that some of the concern among the crew is less due to the coming announcement from the Atlantic Federation, but what our role will be in the response. Have we still not received new orders from the homeland?"

Talia shook her head. "No, I'm afraid not."

Arthur sighed. "Captain, how long do they intend to leave us in limbo like this? All necessary repairs and maintenance have been completed by the Orb dock crews. There is no reason for us to remain in this country any longer."

"I'm with you on that, Arthur," said Talia, "However, when we first arrived in Orb the instructions that I received from the Defense Council were quite clear; after safely returning Lady Cagalli to her people and allowing the local crews to perform the necessary maintenance on our ship, we are to await explicit orders before departing this nation."

Arthur shook his head. "Our most obvious course of action would be to head to Carpentaria, right? I highly doubt that Orb would let us use their new mass driver to return to space, regardless of whatever goodwill we might have with their leader. Carpentaria is therefore the only logical choice for our next destination."

"That it may be," Talia replied, "but that is not our call to make. Our superiors are the ones who have the larger picture in front of them, not us. That's why we must trust their judgment and follow their orders when they do arrive. I'm sorry, Arthur, but this matter is not up for debate. We're soldiers, after all; we need to act the part. Is that understood?"

Arthur nodded. "Yes, Captain."

"Good," she said, "Is there anything else that you would like to bring to my attention?"

"Not at this time, ma'am," he replied.

Talia smiled. "In that case, you're dismissed. Rest up, Arthur. One way or the other, we're going to need all the energy that we can muster soon enough."

Arthur nodded. "Yes, ma'am. And…"

"What is it?" she asked.

He smiled. "You should do the same, Captain. It's not my place to say this, but I think that the crew as a whole will perform better if its commander gets some rest."

Talia nodded. "I will."

"I'll be going, then," said Arthur.

He turned around and headed for the door, but Talia stopped him before he could leave. "Arthur?"

Her XO looked a bit startled. "Ma'am."

Talia smiled at him again. "I appreciate your concerns. You needn't hesitate to voice them. All I ask is that you be respectful in airing them, and you've demonstrated that you're more than capable of that."

Arthur nodded. "Understood, Captain."

The door shut behind him a few seconds later, leaving Talia alone with her thoughts. It wasn't like Arthur to comment on her personal wellbeing; perhaps she'd been staying up a little too late reviewing intelligence briefings and it was starting to show. That wouldn't have surprised her; the material that she'd viewed hadn't exactly been soothing.

_The Defense Council's been busy up in orbit_, she mused, _Cancelling shore leaves, calling up reserves, redeploying squadrons… all actions one would expect of a nation gearing up for war. Is that where we're heading, Durandal?_

After arriving in Orb, Talia had been well aware that the attempted colony drop would raise global tensions, but she had hoped that eventually they would subside after the major powers concluded their inquiries. That had been before the Atlantic Federation Senators had held their press conference, however. The Americans hadn't shown a hint of restraint or diplomatic tact in the manner that they'd delivered their findings to the public; it was as if they'd been _trying _to stir things up even more than they already were. All eyes were now on the man in the Oval Office, waiting for that moment when he would make his announcement.

The Senate's announcement had the effect of an unofficial ultimatum. It would be a tough act to follow, and Talia suspected that President Copeland would do so by making what was unofficial now official. She hoped that she was wrong; one global war had been more than enough for her tastes. Still, she wasn't exactly feeling optimistic about the prospects of deescalating the current tensions in the Earth Sphere; the Americans had put more than a few nails in the coffin of those efforts.

Talia sighed. What would come would come. Her power to influence the events unfolding beyond her ship was nonexistent. All she could do now was sit tight and wait for the dreaded hammer to fall.

A loud chirping came from her monitor; it was the direct communications line from the bridge to her office. She pressed a key and the current on-duty signals officer showed up on the screen, a raven-haired young man in his early twenties.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Ma'am, turn on the news, quick!" her subordinate replied frantically.

He should've addressed her with a bit more decorum and professionalism, but Talia would let his lapse slide for now. The young man was clearly distressed, and taking him to task wouldn't help matters.

"Which channel?" she asked.

"Any channel!" said the officer, "The Atlantic Federation President's going live! This is it!"

Talia nodded and adjusted her monitor. So the moment had come, and a little sooner than she had been expecting.

There was President Alexander Copeland sitting at the desk in what was clearly the Oval Office. The flags of both the Atlantic Federation and the Earth Alliance flanked him. His demeanor was resolute and severe, neither of which boded well as far as Talia was concerned.

"Here we go," she whispered.

"People of the Atlantic Federation," he began, "As you are all painfully aware of, not only our nation but our entire world narrowly escaped utter calamity merely eleven days ago. Our Senate, in cooperation with our intelligence agencies, has conducted a thorough investigation into the matter, the preliminary findings of which were released to the public a short time ago. At that time, the committee that handled the inquiry made several recommendations, many of which sounded drastic at the time. I can understand that many of you are concerned at such pronouncements. Know that I share your concerns, but we cannot allow fear to deter us from doing what is necessary to defend not only our country but our precious world. Therefore, I make this address not only to my fellow countrymen but to all who call our beautiful Earth home."

_Not good_, she thought, _I know he didn't say 'blue and pure world', but his rhetoric certainly harkens to that sentiment, and he's just gotten started. I wonder if Blue Cosmos actually wrote this damn speech instead of the President…_

"The culprits behind this attempt at what would no doubt have been an act of genocide of monumental proportions," he continued, "were all Coordinators. To our knowledge, all of the direct perpetrators were killed in the battle that resulted in the destruction of the ruins of Junius Seven. However, their deaths do not mean that the threat to this planet has been removed. In order to truly secure the safety and continued prosperity of the Earth, we must move to address the source of the threat."

Talia's spirits were already low, but they took a nosedive at that statement. The true source of the threat to Earth was Patrick Zala's rabid Coordinator-supremacist ideology, but those who still adhered to it since the end of the war remained a fringe element of Coordinator society. With the renegade fleet destroyed in the Break The World Incident, whatever real power they were still able to muster had suffered a heavy blow, perhaps a mortal one. However, it would seem that President Copeland did not see things that way. She doubted that the 'source' of the threat in his mind and in those of his advisors was merely the ideology of a man that had died two years ago. That required nuance, and the Americans had shown little inclination towards that as of late. If the Atlantic Federation government was truly willing to make that kind of a distinction then the Senate press conference would not have been so provocative. As it was, world peace now stood upon the edge of a knife, and Talia had a sinking feeling that tonight's speech would drive it over the precipice.

"As the committee made clear," said the President, "the government of the PLANTs bears no small amount of responsibility in this matter. Whether it was by malice or negligence is still an open question, but either way the ruling body at L5 allowed substantial amounts of warships and mobile suits to fall into the hands of those who sought to inflict catastrophic harm to the Earth. That cannot be brushed aside simply because a great tragedy was averted. Concrete steps must now be taken in the name of global security. A reckoning is at hand, and accounts _must _be settled."

_Are you watching this, Durandal?_, she thought, _Are you prepared for what will come next? I'm just a soldier; you're the ruler of all of L5. The fate of our people may very well rest on your shoulders…_

"The PLANTs can no longer be allowed to function as an armed autonomous state," Copeland declared, "For the sake of all life on Earth the colonies at L5 will have to be brought under the umbrella of the Earth Alliance. At the same time, they must be disarmed and occupied by our military. Under the supervision of our armed forces, the Coordinators will then be fully integrated into the Earth Alliance, with representatives from the Atlantic Federation, Eurasian Federation, and the Republic of East Asia forming a coalition government to properly administer their colonies. Their economic resources must also be made to serve the Earth Sphere as a whole and not solely the needs of L5. This is the only way that is guaranteed to avert any repeats of what has become known as the Break The World Incident."

"If the PLANT government truly wishes to demonstrate a desire for peace and prosperity throughout the Earth Sphere," the President continued, "then they must indicate their willingness to comply with these measures. By swallowing their pride and relinquishing their independence in this manner, they will show that they are truly prepared to be responsible members of the global community, and they shall be welcomed into the Earth Alliance with open arms. Such a transition would no doubt have its share of trouble spots to overcome, but if the end result is a safer world, and if the Coordinators truly desire such a world, then they should demonstrate their willingness to commit to this process."

Talia shook her head in dismay. Renounce independence? Become part of the Earth Alliance and allow themselves to be occupied militarily? Allow those who had tried to massacre them in the last war to become their rulers? Submit to economic exploitation when they had become independent in part to escape exactly that sort of exploitation in the first place? These were impossible demands for the Coordinator people to accept, and Talia had a feeling that the Atlantic Federation President was entirely aware of that.

"Now," said Copeland, "such measures cannot, of course, be carried out over night. There is a natural process for matters such as these; a considerable amount of time and effort will be needed in order for these policies to actually go into effect. However, the capacity to signal the intent to comply with such measures is another thing entirely, and we expect to receive such a signal from the PLANTs within the next forty-eight hours. By declaring their intent to fully cooperate with us, the Coordinators may yet prove their earnest desire for peace and security throughout the Earth Sphere."

The President's eyes then narrowed. "I would advise the PLANT Supreme Council and its Chairman to declare their intent to comply with these measures within the allotted time period. A prompt announcement will enable this process to truly begin moving forward. However, if no such declaration is made by the time those forty-eight hours have elapsed, I am afraid that truly drastic steps will need to be taken. In the event that the PLANTs refuse to relinquish their sovereignty and their armaments in the name of global peace, then I shall convene a special session of Congress to authorize a declaration of war."

_There it is_, Talia thought grimly, _out in the open for all to see._

"It is my sincerest desire to avoid an armed conflict," said the President, and Talia was amazed that the man was actually able to keep a straight face as the words came out of his mouth, "No one in their right mind would wish for a return to the staggering destruction that rocked our world two years ago. It would be with the heaviest of hearts that I would go before our Congress to declare war, but if it comes to that it would only be because the PLANTs will have given us no other option. If the Coordinator government will not be part of the solution, then it is clearly part of the problem. There can be no middle ground here; with the safety of our beautiful Earth on the line, half measures cannot hope to suffice. Either the PLANTs agree to dissolve their government and military and submit to occupation, or they will be brought into line through force of arms. Should it come to that, rest assured that my resolve is absolute; I will see this matter through to its end, no matter what the cost may be."

Talia sighed as she turned off the monitor; she didn't need to hear the rest. The events that would soon play out were already crystal clear in her mind's eye. They were so vivid that it was like she had already lived them.

The Atlantic Federation had made its ultimatum. Durandal and the Supreme Council would unanimously reject it. The deadline would pass…

…and then the world would be at war again.

….

As his fellow members of the PLANT Supreme Council filed out of the group's primary meeting chamber, Durandal parted ways with them. The Atlantic Federation President's speech had turned what was already a busy evening of work into an absolutely frantic one, and the Chairman doubted that he would get any chance to rest until well into the following morning, or perhaps not until the evening of the next day.

_The demands of high office can be quite grueling at times_, he mused as his aides and security detail escorted him to his office, _but this is what I signed up for. I always knew that a reckoning would be necessary, but I had feared that my tenure as Chairman might expire prior to it. How strange to actually be _relieved _at this turn of events…_

Of course, that was a sentiment he dared not utter publicly.

A few minutes later they had arrived at his office, and Durandal politely shooed away his retinue. He would have very little time before he would need to get to an emergency session of the Defense Council, and there was an important call that he needed to make in private.

He sat down at his desk and powered up his workstation. As soon as it was ready he dialed out on the software phone and waited patiently for the expected party to answer. It didn't take long.

"Well, now," said a relaxed male voice, "That was quicker than I thought. You move fast, Chairman."

"We saw the President's announcement," said another male voice, sounding almost like it was discussing the weather rather than a sign of imminent war, "I take it that this isn't a social call."

Durandal smirked. The feed was sound only, but there was no need for visuals; he knew _exactly _who he was talking to.

"Indeed," said Durandal, "Are you combat ready?"

"We're always ready for a fight," said the first voice, "but what about our machines?"

"I thought our new mobile suits still weren't ready, Chairman," said the second.

"It's true that Projects Knight Regalia and Witch Regalia are behind schedule," Durandal admitted, "Neither machine will be ready for the opening act. However, I do still have units for you to use. The new GOUF Ignited requires field testing, and a few prototype suits are available. I could send two of them your way."

"Make it just one," said the second voice, "I've seen the designs; that unit's closer to my style of fighting than that of my partner."

"He's right," said the first voice, "Got anything with a little more kick, Chairman?"

"Well," Durandal replied, "if you insist on remaining true to form, then I'm afraid that the closest substitute I can offer for now is a standard Gunner ZAKU Warrior. That strikes me as a rather poor fit for a pilot of your caliber, though."

"It's fine," said the first voice, "As long as it's got a big gun, I'll make it sing."

Durandal nodded. "Very well, then. You'll have your machines."

"Just one thing," said the second voice, "I want the paint jobs altered to our specifications."

Durandal chuckled. "Ah, of course. It would be good for morale to see the two of you in your trademark colors, after all. I'm assuming you'll want the emblems, too?"

"You got it," said the first voice, and Durandal was sure that the source of it was grinning.

"We also want our autonomy upheld," said the second voice, "That was one of the terms of our contract, after all."

Durandal smiled. "And I have every intention of letting you keep it. You'll be free to engage as you see fit. Of course, I'm expecting a performance fitting of the freedom that you've been given. I trust that you'll make it worth ZAFT's investment in the two of you."

"Keep your end of the bargain," said the second voice, "and we'll keep ours."

"You're paying us for what we do best," said the first voice with a chuckle, "Don't worry; we'll give you plenty of fireworks."

Durandal nodded. "I'm looking forward to it. Your usual liaison officer will contact you when your mobile suits are ready. You'll be flying from the _Gondwana _for the opening act."

"A prestigious stage," said the second voice.

The first voice laughed. "I'll say. Biggest damn ship in the fleet. I hope we don't get lost on that thing."

"You'll be provided with orientation materials for her shortly," Durandal replied, "I suggest that you study up."

"Understood," said the second voice.

"Anything else?" asked the first.

Durandal shook his head. "Not for now. Thank you for your time."

"Copy that," said the first.

"Farewell," said the second.

_Those two truly are dogs of war_, Durandal mused as the call ended, _I suppose they were born for it. After all, they put on quite show in the final act of the last war. They danced in the shadow of GENESIS with none other than Wing Zero and survived. They've laid low for the past two years, but now they'll get to return to their natural environment._

_ Welcome back, Galm Team._

**Preview for next time!**

_The Atlantic Federation has issued its ultimatum, and the question of war or peace now falls into the hands of the PLANTs. For Chairman Durandal and the Supreme Council, the terms offered by the Earth Alliance's leading nation are completely unacceptable, and ZAFT prepares for battle. In the midst of the impending showdown between the two superpowers, Heero and the rest of Terminal watch from their hideout in Orb as the world marches to war, waiting for the right moment to act. Next time, on "Destiny's Call", Episode Eight: Ignition._

"_Alea iacta est."_

_Translation: "The die is cast."_

_Gaius Julius Caesar. _

**Author's Notes: **Well, the shit's about to hit the fan! I know you're all eager for everyone to start throwing down, but it takes a lot of effort to set up a world war. Don't worry, the explosions will start taking place soon enough, and the Gundam pilots will do what they do best; turn the bad guys' best laid plans into smoldering ruins.

Hope you all liked the chapter. Please review!


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Notes: **Hey everyone, how's it going? First of all, thanks a lot for putting up with the long wait time in between chapters! I was going to include the opening assault on L5 in this chapter, but I just have too much content, so I decided that I would post what I have now so that the following chapter can focus primarily on the first big battle of the war. Don't worry, guys; the next chapter will have plenty of explosions to make up for their absence in this one!

Only one song's showing up in this chapter; 'The Imperial March' from _Star Wars_.

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or Gundam SEED, or any of the Metal Gear characters that show up here either. I'm doing this for fun, nothing more.

Enjoy!

**Episode Eight: Ignition**

**October 20****th****, C.E. 73**

"That concludes this session," said Chairman Durandal as he and the rest of the Supreme Council stood, "I'll be attending another Defense Council conference if any of you need to reach me. Please forward anything urgent to my secretary; I will review any and all items as soon as I'm able to."

His fellow Council members nodded before filing out the door. Durandal was right behind them, but just like the previous evening he soon split off from the group, accompanied by his aides and security detail. He'd only gotten about two hours of sleep earlier, but he found himself with a surprising amount of energy in spite of that.

_I suppose I really do thrive in moments of crisis_, he mused as he hurried towards the Defense Council's primary meeting room, _Such a rush, to be on the razors edge between success and failure, maintaining the delicate balance needed to ensure my agenda continues forward… I daresay it's exhilarating._

He was at the conference room just a few minutes later. Striding inside the spacious chamber, he saw the twelve members of the Defense Council already seated, although they quickly stood and saluted as he approached. As was custom, they all wore purple and black versions of ZAFT's military uniform.

"Chairman Durandal," said Grand Admiral Rainer Brinkmann.

Durandal nodded in greeting. "Grand Admiral. I apologize for the delay; the Supreme Council session ran a little longer than I had anticipated."

A first generation Coordinator in his early forties, with onyx hair and steely blue eyes, he was both Chairman of the Defense Council and the head of ZAFT's space fleet. A no nonsense officer who had been elevated in no small part due to the incredible casualties the Coordinator fleets had suffered in the final battle of the war, he was a hardened veteran of most of ZAFT's high-profile space battles in the global conflict. While there were more senior officers that could've been tapped for such a prestigious position, Durandal had put his name forward as a nominee because he was apolitical, a very valuable trait in his eyes.

His rank reflected a change in ZAFT's military command structure, an evolution spurred by the need for a more comprehensive system that filled in gaps left by the previous model. ZAFT's original rank system, which it had used throughout the Bloody Valentine War, was quite sparse and informal. At the top of the pyramid had been the Defense Council, nearly all of whom had held the rank of Field Marshal. Other Field Marshals held command of frontline fleets and armies, while Commanders led subdivisions of those forces. Captains were the next down the line, overseeing individual warships, while a senior Captain might be given command over a squadron or task force. Below them were the Reds, the elite pilots, while all others were labled Greens, regardless of whether they were normal combat or support personnel. The entire structure had possessed a great degree of informality and flexibility, thanks in large part to ZAFT's origin as a militia, but it had also resulted in problems when different units of varying sizes and compositions started working in concert. The most common concern was the issue of overall command authority, which was most prominent when larger battle fleets had to coordinate missions. There was also the fact that Commanders didn't necessarily command only fleet task forces or army divisions; sometimes they would be in charge of units as small as an elite mobile suit flight team or a special operations squad. However, because of ZAFT's structure, those Commanders were technically of the same rank as those who led much larger forces, which could cause some degree of tension and confusion if proper arrangements weren't hammered out prior to an engagement.

The problems with the militia-style rank structure had actually never been properly addressed during the war, and Durandal found it to be rather ironic that measures had only been implemented to reconfigure and improve the command system after the Treaty of Junius Seven had been ratified and the military substantially reduced in size. Still, even with the force reductions it was still an organization of considerable size, so the reforms had remained necessary.

The rank of Grand Admiral could only be held by the officer who was head of both the Defense Council and the overall ZAFT armed forces, and that position currently belonged to Brinkmann. The rank of Field Marshal had been retired from the naval command structure, and it was now used strictly by the commanders of the surface armies. Majors were in charge of subdivisions of those armies, and their position was equivalent to that of a Commander from the space forces. Captains in charge of land battleships like the _Petrie_, _Lesseps_, and the newer _Compton_-class were equal to Captains in the space forces. The special rank of Marine Admiral had been created for the officers overseeing ZAFT's aquatic navy, while Marine Commanders led smaller divisions of the ocean-going fleet and coordinated actions between individual surface and sub-surface vessels, which remained under the supervision of traditional Captains. Full ZAFT space battle fleets were let by Admirals, while Commanders were in charge of smaller task forces. A flotilla composed of just a handful of ships would still be led by the Captain with the greatest seniority, which in this case would be officially referred to as the Line Captain. As for mobile suit squadrons, command would go to the pilot with the greatest seniority if they were units composed solely of Greens or Reds. In mixed units, Reds had command authority unless explicitly noted otherwise by the Captain of the vessel that they were flying from.

The new structure wasn't quite as comprehensive as that employed by the Earth Alliance, but it did provide a greater degree of order and hierarchy than the old militia model. At the same time, it still enjoyed some flexibility and made it easier for ad hoc and special units to be formed on a case by case basis. There were also provisions for temporary specialist ranks to be instated depending on the circumstances. The new model had met mostly with approval from ZAFT's officer class, who were becoming exasperated by the tensions between Commanders that had been so common under the militia system. The fact that Durandal had eliminated the position of Special Operations Squadrons from ZAFT's system had also been greeted as a positive development, although his replacing it with the new Fast Acting Integrate Tactical Headquarters, or FAITH unit, had drawn no small amount of criticism since it was answerable directly to the PLANT Supreme Council and its Chairman as opposed to the Defense Council and was therefore outside of the standard command hierarchy.

Actually, to think of FAITH as a single organized unit would be an inaccurate portrayal of the new organization. Rather, it was better considered to be a group of special individuals personally elevated by the Chairman and/or the Supreme Council and empowered to act as agents of the executive governing body within the armed forces. The group was still young, and most of its members were mobile suit pilots who had shown exemplary skill and conduct on the battlefield, but they weren't the sole representatives of the armed forces within this new branch. There was also a handful of ship Captains, as well as a few Majors from the surface forces and individual soldiers elevated from the Special Strike Forces operated by both the space fleets and the ground armies. The privileges and powers granted to members of FAITH were considerable; they had the authority to seize command of conventional military units as the situation warranted, and they had a great degree of independence both on and off the battlefield. The regular forces, including the Defense Council, were less than pleased by this new organization, but since FAITH members typically acted as individuals rather than organized groups like Zala's old Special Operations Squadrons and were therefore seen as having less overall power the officers of the conventional military were willing to tolerate them.

The Grand Admiral nodded at Durandal as the Supreme Council Chairman took his seat. "Well, now that we're all here, I see no reason to delay any further."

Brinkmann tapped several keys on the console built into the table, and a series of screens along the back wall of the chamber flickered to life. Some displayed maps of parts of the Earth Sphere or the Earth itself, while others were images of the gathering fleets.

"I know that only a few hours have passed since our last conference," said the Grand Admiral, "but events are moving at a faster pace than we had anticipated. Earth Alliance forces across the Earth Sphere are already moving. We expect them to be in position to engage us either by the time the deadline passes, shortly afterwards or possibly even a little bit before depending on numerous variables."

Durandal nodded. "I see. What's the most immediate threat?"

Brinkmann tapped a few more keys, causing all but one of the screens along the wall to dim. The sole exception actually got brighter to emphasize its importance. It was a map that included L5, the Moon, L1 and L2. Durandal's eyes were immediately drawn towards a particularly large group of blinking red dots that were positioned at the furthest edge of Earth Alliance space; they appeared to be ready to march upon ZAFT space at a moment's notice.

"This," said the Grand Admiral, "appears to be an Alliance strike force. Its position makes its intent clear; they intend to launch a direct assault on the homeland as soon as hostilities commence. This force has been growing considerably ever since we first noticed it; it appears that the Alliance had prepositioned several battle groups days or weeks earlier in order to allow for a rapid mobilization and rendezvous at a single point."

"How many vessels have they amassed?" asked Admiral Valter Girardelli, the blond haired and brown eyed head of ZAFT's Home Defense Force, a collective designation for every fleet currently stationed at L5.

"At last count," the Grand Admiral replied, "the total stands at a little less than a thousand. Based on the known positions of other Earth Alliance battle groups, we do not project a substantial increase in this figure prior to the passing of the deadline."

Durandal's eyes narrowed. "No small investment, but it still seems… inadequate."

"My thoughts exactly," said Admiral Anastasia Gorshkov, a raven haired and emerald eyed woman who was the head of ZAFT's Fleet Intelligence Service, "Repulsing such a force will be a hard fight, but far from an impossible one. Even with the Earth Alliance fleet being reduced by the treaty limitations, they should still be able to muster a larger force than this for an assault on our homeland. If they do not intend to substantially increase the numbers here then I can only conclude that a conventional head on assault comprises only part of their attack plan."

Brinkmann nodded. "I concur, and I can only think of one reason why the Earth forces would not commit more ships to this attack. Therefore, I am declaring that the Winter Contingency is now in effect."

Winter Contingency was just one of a multitude of code names for certain threats that the PLANTs might be faced with. Only the Supreme Council Chairman and/or the Defense Council Chairman had the authority to declare a Winter Contingency, and it meant only one thing.

The PLANTs were the confirmed or suspected target of a pending nuclear strike.

Durandal nodded. "A drastic step, but one that I am in agreement with. Admiral Delgado, is our countermeasure ready?"

Admiral Jaime Delgado, the tan-skinned, brown haired and brown eyed head of ZAFT's combined military R&amp;D sections, nodded. "The Neutron Stampeder prototype is fully operational and mounted on the destroyer _Johannes Bosscha_. It can be deployed at a moment's notice."

"Perhaps," said Anastasia as she gave her colleague a pointed glare, "but from what I understand the device can only be used once since its emitters burn out after firing, correct? Do you really expect us to bet the safety of our homeland on this gimmick of yours, Delgado?"

Delgado scowled at her. "Smaller scale tests in the labs and designated field sites have shown 100% reliability. The device works; I'm willing to bet my life on it."

"But it is not just your life that you are gambling with," Anastasia shot back, "All of L5 will be placed on the betting table for this round."

"Unfortunately, our hands are tied," Durandal cut in, "We cannot hope for the same outside intervention that saved our colonies in the final battle of the last war. That's why this project and others like it were undertaken in the first place. The Neutron Stampeder was the only one of those that could work and stay within the limitations of the Treaty of Junius Seven. Therefore, we will have to place our trust in it."

Actually, the Neutron Stampeder device occupied something of a gray area as far as the treaty limitations were concerned. Per the treaty provisions, N-Jammers and N-Jammer Cancellers were explicitly banned. The Neutron Stampeder was neither of those devices, but it did draw upon the same technology as the N-Jammers. That was one of the reasons why this particular anti-nuke system had been kept under wraps; Durandal didn't want to get involved in an international legal battle over the new device. More to the point, since it looked quite likely that the Earth Alliance was getting ready to unleash nuclear Armageddon against the PLANTs, Durandal didn't exactly feel guilty about hiding a potential ace in the hole such as this.

"Chairman Durandal is right," said Brinkmann, "The device is out best and currently only defense against a nuclear strike. If it succeeds then our scientists will be vindicated. If it fails then we will all be too dead to complain about it."

"What a charming thought," Anastasia quipped dryly.

"The device _will _work," Delgado insisted, "The fleet just needs to hold the line until the enemy reveals their nukes."

"Against the force the Earth Alliance has assembled, I'm confident that our fleet _will _hold," Brinkmann replied, "Our men and women in uniform will be well aware of the stakes involved in this battle; they will fight to the death to defend their home."

"Then we must do all we can to make sure that the coming casualties will not be in vain," said Durandal, "That goes for more than just the defense of the homeland; I imagine outer space is not the only front that our adversary will be advancing on."

Brinkmann nodded. "Quite right. That's another reason why this session was called; the Earth Alliance surface forces are on the move."

The Grand Admiral tapped a series of keys on his console, and once again the screens on the far wall shifted. Several darkened while others brightened, and the brighter ones all showed maps of key points on Earth.

"We've received new reports from Carpentaria and Gibraltar," said Brinkmann, "Admiral Cosgrove, you may begin."

A rather tall and imposing man with short-cropped auburn hair and silver eyes, Marine Admiral Ray Cosgrove was the overseeing officer of all of ZAFT's oceanic naval forces. He gave a courteous nod to both the Grand Admiral and Chairman Durandal before commencing his report.

"The Atlantic Federation's Pacific Fleet has departed from the Pearl Harbor base," he began, "All indicators have them heading towards Carpentaria, although we cannot rule out the possibility of them taking action against the Orb Union as well."

"Picking fights with us and the Orb Union strikes me as careless, even for the Earth Alliance," said Anastasia, "Although, the Americans have always possessed a certain… belligerence."

"It would not be without precedent," Durandal reminded her, "The Atlantic Federation _did _invade the Orb Union during the last war, albeit not while they were simultaneously targeting Carpentaria."

"Have we made attempts to reach out to Orb?" asked Field Marshal Lindile Yam, the dark skinned and brown eyed commander of all of ZAFT's ground forces, "If they are truly under threat from the Earth Alliance, then surely they would be willing to make common cause with us."

"I'm afraid that's not likely to happen," said Field Marshal Bikram Singh, a tan skinned and grey eyed man who was the head of ZAFT's Surface Intelligence Bureau, or SIB, "Our sources have presented us with some rather troubling report; it would seem that the balance of power within the Orb government is shifting, and not in our favor."

Durandal raised an eyebrow. "Really? The Foreign Office had informed me of some potential tensions amongst the noble families and ministers, but I hadn't realized that it had gone so far."

Anastasia's eyes narrowed. "Is the Lion's daughter turning against us?"

Bikram shook his head. "No; our sources indicate that she remains committed to having her country serve as an impartial mediator in this time of crisis. The forces behind the shift appear to be concentrated primarily within the Seiran clan. While nothing is official, apparently the family elder and his heir favor a pro Earth Alliance policy. They are undermining the Chief Representative within the domestic administration and have made inroads into the Orb Union's foreign policy as well. It would seem that their efforts have garnered them enough influence to significantly alter the balance of power with the country."

"The balance of power should still be in the Chief Representative's favor," said Brinkmann, "It's an open secret that she's friends with Wing Zero's pilot and the renegades from the last war, after all."

"Yes," said Bikram, "but apparently when it comes to affairs of state, she holds them at arm's length."

Durandal nodded. "That makes sense. To publicly acknowledge them would cause a considerable stir, to put it mildly."

Anastasia chuckled. "Yes, especially considering the power that her _friends _displayed in the orbital battle recently."

"It would be nice if we could count on that power being thrown behind our efforts," said Brinkmann, "but we cannot. The renegades have proven to be unpredictable; we cannot count on them to favor one side or the other."

"I wouldn't write them off completely just yet," said Durandal, "The war hasn't even officially started yet, after all. Let's wait for events to take their course before completely designating them as friend or foe."

The Grand Admiral nodded. "Very well. That being said, I doubt we can expect them to come to the aid of our forces at Carpentaria."

"Indeed," said Admiral Cosgrove, "Speaking of Carpentaria, I doubt that the Americans will be the only ones bringing a fleet to bear on her."

"Quite right," said Field Marshal Bikram, "Our sources have confirmed that both the Republic of East Asia and the Eurasian Federation are preparing their Pacific fleets for action as well. As of right now it is impossible to say for sure if they intend to reinforce Atlantic Federation action in the South Pacific; they may simply be mobilizing them to act as a reserve for the Americans."

"What about the nations that comprise the Equatorial Union?" asked Field Marshal Yam, "Are they joining the Earth Alliance in mobilizing against us?"

Bikram shook his head. "No. All current intelligence indicates that they are refraining from mobilizing. They appear unwilling to be drawn into a confrontation."

Durandal smiled. "That's good to hear. I'd like to respect their neutrality for now. I'll keep open channels with them through the Foreign Office; if the Earth Alliance overplays its hand we may yet be able to bring them onto our side."

"They can't have too much to offer," scoffed Admiral Girardelli.

"Not in terms of brute force of arms," Bikram admitted, "However, their territory does contain crucial shipping lanes that transit between the southwestern Pacific and the Indian Ocean. If they joined our cause then they could block Earth Alliance access to those lanes."

"Sure they could," said Anastasia with a scowl, "Right up until the Americans start bombing their cities and slaughtering their civilians."

"Which would consume Earth Alliance resources that otherwise would be deployed to other fronts," said Admiral Cosgrove with a smile, "It probably wouldn't play well from a public relations standpoint either. We could come to their aid and play the role of the heroic cavalry. Their territory is much closer to Carpentaria than it is to any major Atlantic Federation staging area, after all."

"Perhaps," said Brinkmann, "but doing so could potentially weaken our forces on other fronts. If the enemy does strike at the Equatorial Union, or any other neutral nation for that matter, we should only intervene if we have that nation's guarantee of support in return for our efforts."

Durandal nodded. "I concur… although I hate to be so transactional about such matters."

"It might be easier to bring the Equatorial Union into our orbit if we use an intermediary," said Bikram, "The Oceania Union has given every indication of siding with the PLANTs in this matter, and they maintain friendly relations with the Equatorial Union."

"I can ask the Foreign Office to pursue that line," said Durandal, "We've received plenty of encouraging news from the Oceania Union on the diplomatic front in recent days, and I see no reason why they wouldn't be willing to represent our interests to the Equatorial Union."

"What can Oceania bring to the table in military terms?" asked Yam.

"A modest surface fleet, for starters," Bikram replied, "It would serve well as a reserve and it could also shore up Carpentaria's defenses. Their army is considerable, although not of the same measure as those fielded by the member states of the Earth Alliance."

"So they're at best an auxiliary force for us," said Anastasia, "I suppose that's better than nothing."

"Carpentaria isn't the only base that we need to defend," said Brinkmann, "Gibraltar is also at risk, perhaps more so than Carpentaria."

Admiral Cosgrove nodded. "If the Atlantic Federation has secured solid backing from the Eurasian Federation, then we can expect them to lay siege to Gibraltar within days of hostilities commencing. The defenses can hold for a time, but the enemy's advantage in numbers will eventually overwhelm them."

"Which is why we shall reinforce them in short order," said Brinkmann, "I've already drafted a proposal with my command staff. It will be forwarded to the rest of you after this meeting is concluded; you'll find it in the file labeled Operation: Spear Of Twilight."

Yam nodded. "I look forward to reading it."

"Speaking of reinforcing our positions," said Anastasia, "The African Community is just across the sea from Gibraltar. Can we expect any help from them?"

Bikram shook his head. "I wouldn't count on it. To put it mildly, the African Community is rather ambivalent with regards to both ZAFT and the Earth Alliance these days, thanks in no small part to their experience in the last war."

Durandal sighed. "I suppose that can't be helped. Their territory was basically a battleground for us and the Earth Alliance. After going through that, it's really no surprise that they would prefer to remain on the sidelines."

"Perhaps," said Field Marshal Yam, "but the Earth Alliance may not give them that option. Their territory includes the Suez Canal; that's prime real estate even in peacetime, and its value shoots through the roof in a global armed conflict."

Admiral Cosgrove nodded. "I agree. The Earth Alliance will march on them simply to secure the canal. It's possible that they could move further than that; taking North African territory would also give them another staging ground for a siege of Gibraltar, especially if they seized old Morocco."

"The armed forces of the African Community are negligible," said Brinkmann, "but if mobilized in advance they could at least delay Earth Alliance troop movements. Chairman Durandal, would it be possible to make the same diplomatic overtures to them that you are pursuing with the Equatorial Union?"

Durandal nodded and smiled. "Of course. Our ambassador in Cairo does enjoy a good personal friendship with the African Community's Chief of Foreign Affairs. I'll have the Foreign Office put out some feelers and see if we could potentially coax them into leaning our way."

"It would be nice if they agree to help us," said Admiral Cosgrove, "but we shouldn't bet the farm on it."

Brinkmann nodded. "Indeed. Until we know otherwise, we must assume that ZAFT will be going it alone in the coming conflict."

"What's our ultimate strategic aim?" asked Anastasia, "Our forces aren't as large as what we fielded in the last war. We'll be at a serious risk of stretching ourselves too thin if we go into this conflict with no clearly defined mission objective."

"I concur," said Durandal, "which is why I have two overall objectives that I wish for our armed forces to pursue. The first is to simply maintain the defense of the homeland and our bases on Earth. The Earth Alliance will be the aggressor in this war; us merely holding our ground against them and denying them any significant advances will be a victory right there. Our enemy will lose support among their domestic populations if the conflict drags on for too long."

"That could very well apply to us if we're not careful," cautioned Admiral Girardelli.

Durandal shook his head. "Our people understand that we're fighting to protect both our homeland and our independence from those who would either slaughter us or turn us into a client state to be exploited and suppressed. Given what is at stake, I believe that they will be willing to endure a period of hardship in order to secure our future."

"I hope you're right, Chairman," said Brinkmann, "What is the second objective that you want our forces to pursue?"

Durandal smiled. "To bring about a more stable world. It is abundantly clear that the provisions of the Treaty of Junius Seven failed to adequately address the root causes of conflict between us and the Earth Alliance. It is not enough for us to simply defend our homeland in the coming fight; we must engage proactively to alter the geopolitical situation and make sure that this conflict ends on a note that not only favors our continued independence and survival, but will also dramatically reduce the chances of a global conflict such as this from occurring again."

Anastasia's eyes narrowed. "With all due respect, Chairman Durandal, that's a pretty tall order."

"She's right," said Field Marshal Bikram, "As a military, ZAFT's mission is first and foremost to defend our people. We're not out to change the world, only to defend our portion of it."

"I realize that," Durandal replied, "but if we conduct this as just a purely defensive war then I fear that we will only be prolonging the cycle that we now find ourselves in. If we are to truly secure a future for our people then we must look beyond simply protecting our homeland in military terms."

Admiral Cosgrove chuckled. "ZAFT's a purely military body; thinking outside of military terms isn't what we're meant for."

"Cosgrove is right," said Brinkmann, "I'm afraid for your second objective you'll have to work more with the Supreme Council than with us, Chairman."

Durandal nodded. "Well, I'm sure that both bodies will be able to coordinate effectively to pursue our objectives."

"Is there anything else that requires discussion at this time?" asked Anastasia.

Brinkmann shook his head. "No, unless Chairman Durandal has anything to add."

Durandal shook his head as well. "Not at the moment. I'm sure the rest of you have urgent business to attend to at your respective commands. I'll let you get to it."

Brinkmann nodded and stood up, with everyone else joining him. "Meeting adjourned, then. Keep all communication lines open; we made need to reconvene again soon."

Durandal waited for the others to file out before leaving the room. His faithful aides were waiting patiently for him in the hallway, and as he stepped outside they fell right in step with him.

"Chairman," said Rachael, a platinum-blonde woman in her mid twenties, "we received an update about five minutes ago; Athrun Zala has arrived at ZAFT HQ."

Durandal nodded and smiled. "Right on schedule. Is he still in the lobby?"

"For the moment," she replied, "His guide is still with him."

"Excellent," said Durandal, "In ten minutes have him brought to the waiting room of my office. That should give me enough time to prepare."

His aide nodded. "Understood, Chairman."

_One meeting is over_, he mused as he continued down the corridor, _and another shall soon begin. I wonder which will carry greater significance? Let's find out…_

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a smart phone. The number he desired was on speed dial, and he rang it up immediately.

"Meer," he said with a smirk, "You're up."

….

Imposing but not grandiose, efficient and yet graceful, the headquarters of the Coordinator military was a world apart from government buildings found on the surface. While important structures down on Earth often had a certain traditional sense to them, especially if they were involved in affairs of state, buildings in the PLANTs typically embraced modernity in bold fashion. It was an architectural statement to all of the Cosmic Era of the Coordinator peoples' belief in the promise of progress and science, that they refused to be bound to the past and had the will to not only bravely confront the oncoming future but welcome it with open arms.

At least, that's what Athrun faintly recalled hearing in a civics class back in what felt like over a lifetime ago. His father had lacked the patience for indulging in architectural or artistic studies of any kind; his typical first reaction upon looking at an important building had been to point out any flaws it might posses in its defenses should it come under siege. His mother had taken a more relaxed approach, but before Athrun could really understand what she had truly felt about such things she had been cruelly taken from him by the fire of the Bloody Valentine Tragedy.

Now here he was, lacking both mother and father and therefore having only his own opinions to rely on for casting judgment upon the structure he was currently following his guide through. His feelings were mixed, to put it mildly. On the one hand, the last time he'd been in this building had been to see his father, and days like were seldom happy occasions. However, it also presented a sort of familiarity to him, one that provided no small sense of comfort to him as he tried to find his way through what were rapidly becoming chaotic and turbulent times.

He had arrived at Aprilius One the prior evening. Much to his relief, he hadn't been arrested the moment that he'd stepped off the shuttle. A PLANT official had met him at the docks, but rather than have him cuffed and hauled off by a security team they'd simply informed him that his arrival had been expected and that a hotel room had already been prepared for him. Tired from the shuttle flight and not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, Athrun had readily accepted the offer. Before leaving for the night the government official had given Athrun a cell phone and instructions to keep it on him at all times. The former ZAFT Red was sure that it was set up to allow his hosts to track his location, but he didn't mind; he wasn't here to sneak around, after all.

He hadn't been sure what he would do when he had woken up in the morning, but that question had been answered for him almost as soon as he'd finished cleaning up; the official from the day before had called him and asked him to meet him in the hotel lobby. Athrun had followed the instructions and had been promptly led to a high-end black government sedan, which had proceeded straight to ZAFT HQ. The drive there had given Athrun the chance to take in the landscape of a colony that was both familiar and yet alien to him. He'd lived in the capital long enough to know its layout inside and out, and yet he'd been away long enough that it now felt as though he was visiting a foreign country. In a way, he was; his official citizenship had been registered in Orb under his alias following the Bloody Valentine War, and he imagined that his old PLANT citizenship remained revoked following the events of that conflict.

_A Coordinator who feels like a stranger in the Coordinator homeland_, he mused as he followed his guide through the corridors of ZAFT HQ, _I wasn't sure what to expect when I returned here, but… well, it wasn't this._

A lingering sense of guilt had continued to nag at the back of his mind no matter how hard he tried to shove it aside. Not for the first time his thoughts turned back to Cagalli, and he wondered how she was doing. Leaving her to come here wasn't exactly something that he was proud of, but it was something he believed he _had _to do.

Well, he _mostly _believed it, anyway.

Athrun shook his head, trying to focus on the task at hand. "Are we almost there?"

His guide nodded. "It's just at the end of this hall."

_Of course it is_, he mentally chided himself, _I should know that better than anyone. I did go this same way to see father more than once, after all._

Just a few moments later they were walking into what Athrun knew to be the waiting room for the Supreme Chairman's visitors. It was as comfortable in appearance as he remembered it to be. At the far end he saw a desk, and sitting behind it was a young raven-haired, blue eyed woman. The nametag sitting on the front of her desk labeled her as 'Brittany Campbell'.

The secretary nodded and smiled as Athrun entered the room. "Ah, Athrun Zala! Welcome!"

Athrun nodded as he walked up to her. "Hey. Is the Chairman ready to see me?"

"He will be in just a few minutes," Brittany replied, "Please, take a seat. I'll let you know when you can go in."

"All right," he said.

He wandered over towards one of the chairs along the wall and settled in. Looking around, he saw that his guide had quietly slipped out while he'd been speaking with the secretary. While it was nice to be rid of his minder, it didn't do much to lessen his sense of apprehension about this whole meeting. As much as he'd tried to banish them from his mind, Heero's words regarding Chairman Durandal from the conversation he'd had on the beach with him and Kira kept bubbling up to the surface.

_"Even if he agrees to let you help him, I doubt that it'll be out of simple gratitude. He'll want something in return. When you're in the PLANTs, you will be vulnerable; you won't have the leverage you'd need to negotiate with him."_

He couldn't deny that Heero's point there was quite valid. The only reason he wasn't locked away or being thrown out an airlock right now was because the Chairman had decided Athrun had something to offer that was worth enough to avoid enforcing the warrant that had been issued against him by ZAFT. Athrun didn't think that the Chairman would have him imprisoned or executed if the two of them couldn't come to an arrangement of sorts, but he had no way to guarantee that. If he got into trouble here, the cavalry wouldn't come charging over the nearest hill to save him; Heero and the rest of Terminal would definitely have their hands full with the way events were so rapidly escalating. Athrun knew that Terminal had contacts in the PLANTs thanks to Eric Bristow's network, but they wouldn't expose themselves to get him out of a jam. He was on his own, and this wasn't the battlefield. This was a political arena, and it was terrain that the Chairman definitely had the advantage in.

What sort of role would the Chairman want him to play? Would he make Athrun an advisor or use him in a public relations stunt? Would he simply reinstate him and give him a ZAKU and a ship to fly from? Athrun didn't know what to expect, and that was in large part because he didn't actually know exactly what he was hoping to get out of this himself.

He was still pondering what the coming meeting would hold when the door to the waiting room slid open. That was quickly followed by a _very _familiar voice.

"Haro! Athrun!"

His head jerked towards the entrance, and his face became as pale as a sheet of ice.

_Impossible!_

Sure enough, what had come bouncing through the doorway was a spherical Haro-bot, exactly like the ones he'd once made for Lacus. This one was red, and while Athrun couldn't recall if he'd made a model in that particular color or not, it wouldn't have surprised him if he had; he'd created so many of them back in the day that he'd lost count.

As stunning as it was to see what could possibly be one of his creations bouncing around ZAFT HQ, what came behind it was an even greater shock to his system. "Athrun!"

_It can't be_, he thought as a woman came into the room, _She _can't _be here!_

Long and flowing pink hair, cerulean eyes, angelically pale skin, a golden pendant… it couldn't be anyone else.

Lacus Clyne.

She was beaming as she rushed over to him, and before he could react she threw her arms around him. "Oh, Athrun! I'm so glad you're here! I've been waiting so long for you to arrive!"

Athrun blinked. She'd been _waiting_ for him here?

As he shakily got to his feet and put her at arm's length, he realized that something wasn't right. Sure, superficially, it looked like Lacus was standing in front of him, but upon closer inspection he noticed several details that didn't add up. For starters, the pendant in her hair was a five-pointed star, and he'd never seen Lacus wear one like it. Next was her outfit. The color scheme was vintage Lacus; a mixture of white purple, with some gold trim for good measure. However, the style was anything but that of the Songstress of Peace. Lacus's gowns had always emphasized grace, elegance, and purity. While they might've shown some skin on rare occasions, it was never in a provocative manner. What the girl in front of him wore actually appeared to be something more akin to a white and purple one-piece with a long purple skirt attached. There was a considerable gap where the one-piece met the skirt at her thighs, giving a rather tantalizing view of her hips, and it opened up further down as well to show off her legs. At the same time, the upper-body portion hugged her skin much closer than anything Athrun had ever seen Lacus wear before, and it gave plenty of emphasis to a bosom that he suspected might actually be bigger than that of his ex-fiancé.

_No mistaking it_, he thought as he pieced together the evidence before him, _It's not her! So who _is _she? What's going on here?_

"Athrun?" said the girl, blinking in confusion, "What is it? What's wrong? Aren't you happy to see me?"

Athrun's eyes narrowed. "Who are you?"

"What are you talking about?" she asked, leaning forward and taking his hand, "You know who I am! What kind of question is that?"

Athrun was spared answering her by the sound of the door behind the secretary's desk opening. A moment later Chairman Durandal walked through, nodding and smiling as he approached.

"Ah," he said, "I see you two have already met. Forgive me, Athrun; this was a bit sooner than I'd intended."

"What are you talking about?" he asked before pointing at the girl, "Who is she?"

"Good questions," Durandal replied, "and ones that are best answered in private. Why don't the two of you join me in my office? We have a great deal to discuss, and I'm afraid time is not on our side."

Not seeing any alternative, Athrun nodded. He was here for a meeting after all, although he hadn't counted on having someone like the girl who was holding his hand coming along for the ride. Slipping free of the girl's grip, he followed the Chairman towards his office, while the Lacus impersonator fell in behind him.

"Care for some tea?" Durandal asked as the door shut behind them, "Or perhaps something a little stronger? I keep a bottle of bourbon and some glasses in the desk. I'm told this particular decanter is quite good."

Athrun shook his head. "No, thank you."

"I'm fine, thanks," said the girl next to him.

Durandal nodded. "Very well, then. Please, have a seat."

The two of them did as they were told while Durandal settled in behind the desk. Athrun saw him glance at something on the desktop monitor for a moment before he turned to them.

"First of all," he said, "I'd like to thank you for coming all the way out here to meet with me, Athrun. I admire the courage it took you to return to L5, especially given the circumstances under which you departed the homeland."

"Well, you didn't have me arrested back on the _Minerva_," Athrun replied, "I felt that you might extend me the same courtesy if I returned to the PLANTs."

Durandal smiled. "Indeed. In fact, you'll be happy to know that I've had the arrest warrant for you completely rescinded. You are no longer considered a traitor or an enemy to ZAFT and the PLANTs. You're free to come and go as you please."

Athrun bowed his head. "Thank you, Chairman."

"Please," said Durandal, "it was the least that I could do in exchange for the aid that you provided us during the events following the attack on Armory One. You performed exceptionally well; civilian life clearly hasn't dulled your piloting skills."

"The ZAKU Warrior is an easy machine to use," said Athrun, "ZAFT's done a lot to simplify mobile suit controls since the last war."

Durandal nodded. "I'm sure our weapons developers would appreciate the approval of a seasoned veteran like you regarding their innovations. It is a pity that you only got to experience their advancements under less than ideal circumstances."

Athrun's eyes narrowed. "I'm assuming that my experience and piloting abilities are part of why you agreed to meet with me today, right?"

Durandal chuckled. "Straight to the point, I see. Rather refreshing, all things considered. Yes, you're quite right. You have skills that would serve my cause quite well, along with a certain name recognition and reputation. You're obviously well aware of that, and you know that I would indeed seek to make use of your talents, which raises a question; why did you decide to come here with that knowledge in mind?"

Athrun sighed. "The world's marching to war, and nothing I do down on Earth will make a difference about that. I thought that if I came here I'd be able to do something meaningful."

Durandal nodded. "An admirable sentiment. However, your position down on Earth wasn't exactly negligible. After all, you were the bodyguard of Chief Representative Athha, and a close friend of hers. Surely you would have her ear and cooperation in times like this, and doubtlessly she would seek to employ your talents in the service of the Orb Union. With all that in mind, why did you abandon your place with her and come here?"

Athrun shook his head. "I was Cagalli's bodyguard, and leaving her was difficult, but I felt that it was something I had to do. I believed that if I returned to the PLANTs and ZAFT I could find a way to help her in a manner that I couldn't do in Orb. Cagalli will try to keep Orb neutral in the coming conflict, but I doubt the Earth Alliance will make that easy for her. Since ZAFT will likely be fighting the Alliance soon, I felt that if I were a part of that effort I could not only defend innocent people in the PLANTs but help Cagalli and Orb as well."

Durandal smiled. "You wish to be at the center of the action, and preferably in the cockpit of a mobile suit, yes?"

"That's right," Athrun replied, "The front line's where I can do the most good. Originally I came here because I wanted to try to find a way to stop a new war from happening at all, but with the way things are going I don't think that's possible anymore. At this point I believe that the best way that I can make a difference is from the cockpit of a mobile suit... and by flying with ZAFT."

Durandal nodded. "Well, I'm certainly inclined to let you rejoin our ranks, and even reinstate you to your former position. Your name carries weight, and if our pilots knew that you were fighting alongside them I know that it would bolster morale. That being said, I'm afraid it's not as simple as allowing you to put on your old uniform and giving you a machine."

Athrun's eyes narrowed. "So, what do I have to do to convince you that I'm on your side?"

"Nothing that you would find objectionable, I assure you," said Durandal, "Think of it more as providing a token of good faith."

"What would that involve?" asked Athrun.

Durandal sighed. "I'll be frank; a little while ago I was partaking in a conference with the Defense Council. The Earth Alliance has amassed a fleet just beyond the Zero Line. Either at the moment the Atlantic Federation's deadline passes or possibly before that we expect the fleet to cross the demarcation and advance on L5. Time is of the essence, and we need every skilled pilot available, so I would test you by fire. Fly with the Home Fleet and defend the PLANTs against the Alliance's opening assault. If their attack is repelled and you survive, I shall not only fully reinstate you, but also give you a position shared only by a handful of exceptional individuals."

Athrun nodded. "What would my position in the Home Fleet be?"

"You would fly as a ZAFT Green from the carrier _Gondwana_," said Durandal, "You'll be given a ZAKU Phantom and the freedom to requisition the Wizard Pack of your choice. While you are on the _Gondwana _and on the battlefield you will be operating under the supervision of a man named Heine Westenfluss. He's a veteran of the last war, a ZAFT Red, and personally appointed by me as a member of FAITH."

Athrun's eyes widened slightly. "FAITH? You mean the new Special Operations group?"

Durandal chuckled. "A rather crude way to put it, although given your experience with your father I suppose I can't fault you for reflexively using that title. FAITH is something rather different from the institution created by Patrick Zala. Heine can fill you in on the details when you meet him. If you survive the coming battle and perform well, I may very well bring you in as the group's newest member; you certainly have the background and skills to qualify for it."

"Why would you even make that offer?" asked Athrun, "Since I deserted ZAFT in the last war, wouldn't someone like me be the last person you'd want in an elite unit?"

Durandal shook his head. "I don't see things quite the same way that you do. Yes, you deserted, and military regulations are quite strict regarding the punishment for such an act. However, I believe that yours was a principled defection. You recognized that your father had gone too far and were willing to use what power you possessed to stand up to him while continuing to fight against the tyranny and bloodthirstiness of the Earth Alliance as well. That speaks to a great deal of moral fortitude on your part, and that is a quality that I seek in the people that I choose to surround myself with."

"You were so brave!" said the fake Lacus, "You fought to protect _everyone _in the last war, not just Coordinators. That's why we need you with us!"

Durandal smiled. "Simply put, but more than adequate. Besides, it would be a crime for a man of your talents to merely be reinstated as a Red. There is so much more that you are capable of, and I want to give you the power to realize your full potential. Serve your probationary period and survive your trial by combat, and I give you my word that I will grant you everything you need to truly make a difference in the struggle to come."

"Is that all?" asked Athrun, "That seems pretty straight forward."

Durandal smirked. "Well, not quite. There is one other requirement that I have for you, and it concerns our lovely friend here."

Athrun looked over at the Lacus lookalike. "I was wondering when you'd get to her. What's her story?"

"As you're quite well aware," said Durandal, "the real Lacus Clyne has not returned to the PLANTs since Patrick Zala's government forced her to flee. It truly is a shame; her ability to both inspire and calm people is unique and invaluable. The PLANTs have felt the pain of her absence more than you realize over these past two years. I cannot reach out to her and convince her to come home; I do not even know where she is. Yet with the way tensions have been escalating even prior to the events at Armory One, her charisma and status as an angel of peace are needed now more than ever. Lacus Clyne may no longer be willing to serve the PLANTs… but the appearance of her doing so can be created just the same."

"So you hired her to act as a double," said Athrun, "That might work short-term, but sooner or later people will catch on."

Durandal smiled. "I think that you're mistaken. _You_ may have seen through the deception, but you know the real Lacus Clyne better than most. To the people at large, she was a singer, an idol, and an inspirational idealist. They didn't know her on a personal level."

"Maybe," Athrun replied, "Even so… this is pretty underhanded."

Durandal sighed. "Perhaps so. However, if she can bring a sense of calm and hope to the people in these troubling times, then I sincerely believe that the deception that comes with her role is a very small price to pay. With her, we can prevent the fear and anger of the people from growing into the terror and hatred that was so readily fueled by your father's regime. War by its very nature is an ugly affair, and it has the capacity to bring out the worst in people. If a method such as this helps the people of the PLANTs remember who they are and brings out their better angels, isn't it worth indulging in a little smoke and mirrors?"

The argument made sense, but Athrun was still a little uncomfortable at the notion of a government-backed fake Lacus preaching to the people. It felt like an insult to what the real Lacus had worked so hard to accomplish in the last war. The taste it left in his mouth was bitter, but he highly doubted that any objections he raised would convince the Chairman to alter course now.

"Fine," he said, "but you're using her in the role you described raises another question; why hasn't she been in the news? Lacus being back in the PLANTs would be a headline story, but there hasn't been a word about it in the international media."

Durandal smirked and nodded. "How very observant of you. The truth is, I'm holding her in reserve. She will be unveiled to the public once the fighting begins. If we time her debut right then it will have maximum impact."

"I won't let you down, Chairman!" said the fake Lacus, "I promise that I'll do my best!"

Durandal gave her a warm smile. "Fear not, my dear. I'm sure you'll exceed even my wildest expectations."

"You said that she was involved in your requirements for me to prove myself to you," said Athrun, his eyes narrowing, "In what way?"

Durandal turned back to him. "Well, for starters, you would need to cooperate in the story that she is indeed the real Lacus Clyne. For obvious reasons, your word would carry a great deal of weight in this matter, and I can't have you revealing her true nature."

Athrun nodded reluctantly. "If it helps keep the people of the PLANTs from going down my father's path… then I'll keep her secret to myself."

Durandal bowed. "I'm grateful for your discretion. Rest assured that it will not go unnoticed or unrewarded."

"Thank you, Athrun!" cried the fake Lacus as she put her arm around him, "I knew that I could count on you!"

"Uhm… sure," said Athrun, feeling more than a little awkward as he carefully slipped free of the girl, "So… what's your real name?"

She smiled. "It's Meer. Meer Campbell. Please call me Lacus, though!"

"All right," he replied as he turned back to the Chairman, "I'm assuming you want me to do more than just keep her true name a secret."

Durandal nodded. "Indeed. During the last war, your engagement to Lacus Clyne was public knowledge… and exploited. The son of the Defense Chairman and the daughter of the Supreme Council Chairman; people saw the two of you as representing the very best of the Coordinator people. As a couple, you were a shining vision of the future."

"That engagement was arranged by our fathers," said Athrun, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable about the direction this conversation was heading in, "We went along with it because it was our duty. We were on good terms, but… well, we weren't exactly upset when it got called off."

Durandal chuckled. "I thought as much. You needn't be ashamed of feeling that way; it's only natural that you would prefer to find someone on your own terms rather than be forced to be with them. I imagine Lacus held a similar sentiment. From what I know of her, I highly doubt that she would've thought ill of you for being relieved at the arrangement falling through due to the events surrounding the two of you and her father."

Athrun shook his head. "No. We both knew that we were better off as friends, anyway; we were always much more comfortable with each other that way than as a couple."

"And there's nothing wrong with acknowledging that," Durandal said with a warm smile, "The two of you were pushed together by circumstances beyond your control. Even if the image of the two of you together made our people happy, it would be wrong to discount your feelings on the matter."

Durandal sighed. "That being said, while the engagement itself may have been called off, the people of the PLANTs do still hold you and Lacus Clyne in high regard. As individuals you are symbols of our better angels. You defied your father and fought against his march to genocide, while Lacus preached understanding and cooperation between Naturals and Coordinators. By yourselves, you're strong. Together, though, I believe that your power is amplified exponentially."

"So what do you want us to do?" he asked cautiously.

"Meer's public debut will come soon enough," Durandal replied, "and it's likely to be a solo performance. However, there may be future instances where it would be ideal to have her appear in public with you."

Athrun's eyes narrowed. "Are you planning on putting the engagement back on?"

Durandal shook his head. "No, unless you indicated an openness to that. Based on your current demeanor, though, I do not see that as likely. That being said, if the two of you gave an appearance of being… _close_, as it were, it would give the people something to take their minds off of what will no doubt be a hard-fought and bloody struggle."

"So it's not enough to have a fake Lacus," said Athrun, "You want me to be part of a fake relationship, too?"

"It would strictly be for public consumption," said Durandal, although if he was trying to be reassuring it wasn't working, "and the two you needn't make any official statements that you're romantically involved. That would be far too blatant. It would be better to just give the people hints and let them draw their own conclusions. You are under no obligation to actually enter a relationship."

"But you wouldn't be opposed to it," said Athrun, folding his arms.

Durandal smiled. "Well, should it come about, I certainly wouldn't object. How things evolve from here is up to you, though. I only ask that you be willing to partake in public appearances with her should the opportunity arise. Also, this is not just for the civilian population to partake in; I expect that the military rank and file will find the two of you together to be an interesting and welcome distraction. It would be best if you allowed your soon-to-be comrades to come to their own conclusions about you and Meer rather than disabuse them of such notions."

Athrun sighed. He wasn't particularly happy about this, but at the very least it sounded like Durandal was willing to give him more leeway than his father and the late Siegel Clyne had given him and Lacus during their public spectacle of an engagement. If playing along meant that he would be able to fight with ZAFT and make a real difference in the war, possibly even help bring it to a swift conclusion, then was it really such a bad deal?

Cagalli's face flashed through his mind. If he was supposed to be seen in public with Meer and pretend that she was Lacus, it was all but certain that she would see images of the two of them together sooner or later. What would she think? She would instantly know that Meer was an imposter, but what would it say to her when she witnessed Athrun going along with such a ruse?

_I can explain everything to her later_, he thought, _It's for the best. She'll understand._

It was a sentiment that rang hollow to him. There wasn't much he could do about it, though. He had thrown the dice in coming here, and he had no choice but to accept the outcome. Durandal held all the cards, and Athrun was lucky that the Chairman hadn't imposed stricter terms for allowing him to rejoin ZAFT.

"All right," he said, "I'll play along."

Durandal nodded. "I very much appreciate that."

"Don't worry, Athrun," said Meer as she winked at him, "It'll be fun!"

"It's not supposed to be fun," Athrun chided her, "It's for the greater good."

"Athrun is right, Meer," Durandal gently admonished, "I appreciate the enthusiasm that you bring to your role, but you must take the responsibilities that come with your position as seriously as Athrun does."

Meer nodded. "Of course, Chairman."

"So," said Athrun, "when do I leave for the carrier?"

"Within the hour," said Durandal, "I'll have transportation arranged. We'll need to get you reintegrated with the fleet as quickly as possible. I'm sure much of it will be familiar to you, but there have still been some changes since the last war."

"Of course," said Athrun, "I'm a quick learner."

Durandal smiled. "I'd expect nothing less."

He stood up, with Athrun and Meer following suit. Walking around the desk, the Chairman then held his hand out.

"Good luck, Athrun Zala," he said, "I look forward to witnessing your rebirth as a soldier of ZAFT."

Athrun nodded as he shook his hand. "Thank you, Chairman."

….

The hangar design for most ZAFT warships was typically a cramped one. It was usually no more than an enlarged corridor with slots built into the walls for mobile suits, and it was tucked in just behind the ship's linear catapult. It was functional and efficient, but it still made work crews and pilots feel like they were being crammed into a sardine can.

The main hangar bay of the super carrier _Gondwana _did _not _fit that description.

As the largest ship in ZAFT's space fleet, and one devoted to the primary purpose of carrying copious amounts of mobile suits, one would expect the vessel to have a larger hanger than normal ships, but even someone with that expectation would be utterly awed by what they found aboard the carrier. The central space where the vessel stored its mobile suits was _massive_. It felt less like a hangar and more like a central plaza that one might find in a major city. It was a gargantuan and cavernous space capable of housing, maintaining and repairing hundreds of mobile suits, while the open area in the middle was wide enough for scores of machines to be brought out of their births at any one time to allow for experimental maneuvers to test their combat readiness. At the far end were the slots for the vessel's multiple linear catapults, which were capable of getting the ship's vast complement of mobile suits onto the battlefield with stunning rapidity.

Completed after both the Bloody Valentine War and the ratification of the Treaty of Junius Seven, the super carrier _Gondwana _was perhaps the ultimate expression of Coordinator space combat doctrine. ZAFT was used to having a numerical handicap in its struggles against the Earth Alliance, and the treaty limitations on force numbers had simply reinforced their traditional position of being outnumbered by the opposing power. The answer to this problem was the same one that the Coordinator people had lived by in the war; qualitative overmatch. Just as their mobile suits had been superior to any unit fielded by the Earth Alliance until the development of the Heliopolis prototypes, and just as their warships had outperformed any vessel the Atlantic Federation had produced until the construction of the _Archangel_, the new super carrier promised to stand well above any craft employed by the opposing fleet in its intended role.

At twelve-hundred meters in length, the _Gondwana _was the largest military vessel operating in the Earth Sphere. Its colossal olive drab hull was truly an awe-inspiring sight to behold. Four long vertical slots dominated the front of the ship, and each of these in turn was subdivided into four smaller openings. These were the openings for its linear catapults, and its system for launching and recovering mobile suits was unrivaled by any other vessel. The top of the hull was composed of a broad bridge from which not only the ship itself was controlled, but also the operations of both its mobile suit teams and supporting fleets were coordinated from. This command center was flanked on both sides by long, curved, and reinforced protrusions that provided the bridge with shelter from broadside attacks, although it remained vulnerable to fusillades fired from head on.

Unlike the Earth Alliance's _Agamemnon_-class carriers, the _Gondwana _had very thick armor. It would take a concentrated assault to bring her down; even the _Minerva_'s mighty Tannhäuser positron cannon was incapable of destroying her with a single shot. Of course, the armor wasn't likely to hold up against something as powerful as a nuke or Wing Zero's fearsome rifle, but it was the duty of the vessel's mobile suits to keep such threats from reaching the warship to begin with. Despite her size, though, the carrier was only lightly armed. Anti-ship weaponry consisted of eight dual beam cannons and eight single beam cannons, while 40 CIWS made up the vessel's anti-air armament. The ship truly was first and foremost a carrier, unlike the hybrid _Orizaba_-class carrier/dreadnoughts.

_It's one hell of a ship_, thought Galm Two as he floated next to his mobile suit, _I wonder how she'll hold up once the fireworks start…_

Now thirty years old, Larry 'Solo Wing Pixy' Foulke hadn't changed much over the past two years. That well-trimmed brown hair, brown eyes, and stubble running along his jaw and chin remained, as did his laid-back and confident attitude. His outfit hadn't changed over the past two years either; blue jeans, a white shirt, and a brown leather jacket. It wasn't the right thing to wear in the hangar of a warship; he really should've had his flight suit on just in case there was a loss of pressure. However, he wasn't here to sortie at this time, just to check over his machine. He'd be out of here soon enough.

His machine wasn't much when compared to what he'd flown in the final battle of the last war; the ZGMF-X07A Morgan could've put any unit on the _Gondwana _to shame. Its successor promised to be an even greater beast, but unfortunately it still wasn't ready for deployment. Galm Two had no choice but to make do with the mass production unit that closest met his preferences and fighting style, although he would admit that he could definitely do worse than a ZGMF-1000/A1 Gunner ZAKU Warrior. Specs and armament wise, Pixy's unit was identical to any other ZAKU that had been fitted with this particular Wizard Pack, but at least the paintjob was distinctive; a mix of light grays and a red right arm. Any pilot that was fortunate enough to survive the last war would recognize the color scheme, and as for any newbies Pixy might encounter… well, he doubted that they'd survive long enough to burn his colors into their memory.

He chuckled as he looked up at his unit. "You're a piss poor substitute for what I'm supposed to have… but I'll manage."

"It's poor form to bad talk your mobile suit," said a familiar male voice from off to the right.

Pixy smirked as he looked over at his flight lead. "Since when did you start caring about that sort of thing?"

"Our mobile suits are invaluable partners," his flight lead replied, "even when they are not the units that we would prefer to be using. They deserve our respect and care, especially since we will soon be using them in battle."

Pixy folded his arms. "Come on, don't hide it; you're disappointed in what we have to fly here, too. Your unit's nice, but it's no Galahad."

Cipher chuckled. "Perhaps, but it will do just fine."

Now thirty-two, then man Pixy knew only as Cipher remained as formidable a mercenary now as he had been two years ago. A black patch covered his left eyes, but the right one remained open, a blue-gray orb with a gaze as sharp as a knife. His brown hair was still as unkempt as ever, and it still fell to the base of his neck. He'd kept the faded goatee as well, and Pixy couldn't blame him for it; it was rather popular with the ladies. Like Pixy, Cipher's outfit wasn't standard military attire. The standout piece was a thick white jacket with grey fur at the neckline, sleeves, and coattails. Beneath that was a simple gray button-up shirt, and rounding the ensemble out were black pants and boots. His signature pair of Colt 1911s remained holstered at his waist, and Pixy knew from firsthand experience just how lethal his flight lead was when it came to a quick-draw with them.

The world at large was under the impression that Galm Team had died with GENESIS in the final battle of the last war. ZAFT and the Earth Alliance had been unable to confirm that one way or the other, so Cipher and Pixy had been officially listed M.I.A., but that had simply been a technicality as far as the two superpowers were concerned. However, the truth had been quite different.

Obviously, the two of them had survived, and had in fact been recovered by the destroyer that they had based out of in the war's final campaigns, the _Kerimov_. However, upon their retrieval and subsequent medical treatment, Cipher had requested that the _Kerimov_'s crew remain silent about their survival. Since they'd established a good working relationship with the ship's Captain over the course of the time they'd spent aboard the destroyer, Galm One's request had been honored. Pixy had been more than a little puzzled by his flight lead's decision, though. After all, they were mercenaries; they needed a public presence if they were to attract clients and set up new contracts.

Cipher's decision had proven prudent before too long, though. The two of them may have been private contractors, but in the final days of the war they had become closely associated with Patrick Zala. While Galm Team hadn't played a direct role in any of the Zala regime's war crimes, that didn't change the fact that they had acted as the last line of defense for a weapon that was capable of ending all life on Earth. Since Patrick Zala had attempted to use said weapon against the cradle of humanity, there was a distinct possibility that Cipher and Pixy could be tried as accomplices to their former employer even though GENESIS had been destroyed and the threat it posed eliminated. Laying low had definitely been the right call under those circumstances.

Despite their links to the old regime, the provisional government headed by Eileen Canaver had never sought them out. Pixy had simply chalked it up to them having bigger fish to fry, and also because the provisional government had needed time to consolidate its rule and prepare for treaty negotiations with the Earth Alliance. No legal proceedings were ever brought against the mercenary duo and the money they had saved up while working for Patrick Zala meant that they were able to live comfortably while remaining beneath the radar for a little while.

It hadn't been until after the elections that had brought Durandal's administration to power that Cipher had proposed that they reach out to the government and ZAFT for employment. Pixy had been skeptical; Durandal may not have been firmly in Siegel Clyne's camp in the last war, but neither was he a staunch ally of Patrick Zala. The man had occupied a middle ground, and in Pixy's eyes that made him difficult to read. Cipher had seemed confident that Durandal would want them on his side, though, so Galm Two had gone along with his flight lead.

The gambit paid off; Durandal did indeed see value in their skills and had readily set them up with a new contract. It had been a very hush-hush affair; the Chairman had stressed discretion and a desire to keep the legendary mercenary duo in the shadows as a secret weapon. Cipher and Pixy hadn't been bothered by that since it meant that they could continue to operate under the radar and avoid drawing the attention of those who might still seek to prosecute them for aiding and abetting Patrick Zala.

At first their work had been to act as instructors for those who were brought into Durandal's new FAITH organization. The soldiers were of good quality, but the Supreme Council Chairman had still insisted that they undergo new training with Cipher and Pixy, and Galm Team had indeed been able to improve the skills of those who had been brought under their wing. Those that they trained were ordered to keep quiet about Galm Team's involvement, and so far none of the trainees had spilled the beans. The money was good, but instructor work was too dull for Cipher and Pixy's tastes for it to really be a long-term career path. Durandal had been well aware of this, and had assured the two of them that they would soon be moved into a position that had the potential to see real action.

Now here they were aboard the largest warship not just in ZAFT but the entire Earth Sphere, preparing for what promised to be a spectacular opening of a new war. Sure, the new machines that Durandal had promised them were not ready for action quite yet, but they still had mobile suits to fly in the imminent battle, and for now that was enough for the two of them. Pixy doubted that any of the pilots they would face off against had anything close to Heero Yuy's level of skill; a standard Gunner ZAKU Warrior and the machine granted to Cipher would be more than enough for the coming fight.

The mobile suit Cipher would be using for the upcoming battle was certainly nothing to sneeze at. A prototype model close-quarters-combat mobile suit that was soon to enter limited production, the ZGMF-X2000 GOUF Ignited was in a few ways a scaled down version of the much more powerful ZGMF-X06A Galahad that Cipher had flown in the final battle of the last war. Its primary melee weapon was the MMI-558 Tempest beam sword, which was actually a smaller version of the double-edged MMI-515 Caledfwlch utilized by the Galahad. The unit also had two MA-M757 Slayer Whip Heat Rods, one mounted within each forearm as opposed to the single whip that had been mounted within the Galahad's forearm shield. Also mounted on each forearm was a M181SE Draupnir 4-barrel beam gun, which gave the machine limited mid-range attack capabilities.

The unit lacked Phase Shift Armor, just like the Gunner ZAKU Warrior that Pixy had been given, but there was a shield mounted on the unit's left arm that provided limited defensive capabilities while also storing the Tempest beam sword. It was also incapable of utilizing the Wizard Packs that gave the ZAKU Warrior series its flexibility. This was somewhat offset by the unit being equipped with a flight pack that not only provided excellent speed and maneuverability in outer space but also enabled it to fly independently while operating on Earth. The few prototype units of this series that had been given to pilots so far each had their own unique paint jobs, and Cipher's was naturally the same as that used by his prior machines; a light grey base with black trim. Once it entered limited production it would be given to unit commanders and certain elite pilots, moving into the role currently occupied by the ZAKU Phantom.

Pixy shrugged. "Well, as long as we get our new machines before we have to tangle with Wing Zero, I guess I'll be fine. It's even more powerful that it was last time around."

"From what I've heard," said Cipher, "there's some confusion as to whether or not it actually _is _Wing Zero. According to Durandal Heero introduced it as the Albion when he was working with the _Minerva_."

Pixy chuckled. "Come on, you don't really believe that he actually allowed Orb to destroy Wing Zero at the end of the war, do you?"

Cipher shook his head. "No. What Orb put together was a convincing dummy; there's no way that Heero would've allowed them to really demolish his machine. The Athha administration simply put on a bit of theater to move the Alliance and the PLANTs towards final treaty ratification."

Pixy nodded. "My thoughts exactly. I'm sure we'll be running into him again before too long."

"But not up here," said Cipher, "Not anytime soon."

Pixy smirked. "You almost sound disappointed."

Cipher chuckled. "Maybe."

Looking around the hangar, Pixy's eyes narrowed as he spotted a familiar figure. "Is that who I think it is?"

He'd never actually met the young man in person, but he knew the face. Pixy had seen it on the occasional news broadcast and notifications from ZAFT during the last war… particularly when the person in question had committed treason.

Cipher nodded. "No mistaking it. That's Athrun Zala."

Indeed it was, and not only was he on ZAFT's flagship, but he was also in military uniform. Granted, one he wore was green instead of the red that his old position had entitled him to, but the fact that he was allowed to wear one at all was impressive.

He also wasn't alone. A young man in a red ZAFT uniform was leading him through the hangar. Pixy had never seen him before. He had amber-blond hair that fell just past his chin, and it served as a bright contrast to his green eyes. The ZAFT Red appeared to be at most in his early twenties, and Pixy's sharp eyes did not fail to spot the white winged badge pinned to the upper left section of his chest.

Pixy raised an eyebrow. "Huh. The son Patrick Zala and a member of FAITH on this ship… I wonder when they showed up?"

"Must've just been today," said Cipher with a shrug, "We would've noticed them before now otherwise."

"Are you sure about that?" asked Pixy, "This ship's pretty damn big, after all. They could've been here for a while and we just never bumped into them."

Cipher shook his head. "No. They just arrived today."

Pixy shrugged. "Whatever you say, buddy. Should we go say hello?"

"Don't you think that'd be a bit awkward?" asked Cipher, "You did almost kill one of them in the last war."

Pixy chuckled. "That's right, I forgot all about that. I'm still surprised that Athrun survived that; I really did a number on his mobile suit."

"Indeed," said Cipher, "If it were any other unit than the Justice then I have no doubt that Athrun would have died that day. It's best that we keep out distance for now; no need to force a confrontation. If he's here then it means the Chairman has a use for him. We should avoid any actions that might make him… _uncomfortable_."

Pixy nodded. "Yeah, that's probably a good call. I'm sure he'll find out about us soon enough; it's not like the rest of the crew's kept quiet about the fact that we're here."

"Yes," Cipher replied, "although I do wonder how he'll feel about fighting alongside the likes of us."

"No kidding," said Pixy with a smirk, "That should be amusing."

_Welcome back to ZAFT, Athrun Zala_, he thought, _Are you going to stick around this time, or will you play the traitor again? I suppose we'll just have to wait and see…_

….

"This is incredible!" said Athrun as he looked around the _Gondwana_'s hangar, "I never thought the PLANTs would ever build a ship like this!"

His guide looked back at him over his shoulder and smiled. "It is impressive, isn't it? I must admit that my reaction was much like yours when I first came aboard her. She truly is a marvel."

"You can say that again…" Athrun murmured as the two of them headed towards their mobile suits.

Athrun had been more than a little apprehensive when Chairman Durandal had told him that he'd be operating under the supervision of a member of FAITH, but he'd been pleasantly surprised when he'd met Heine Westenfluss. The ZAFT Red might've been a veteran of the last war and had remained loyal to the PLANTs while Athrun had defected, but the blond pilot didn't seem to hold Athrun's desertion against him in the least. He struck Athrun as a rather outgoing and optimistic soldier, although he still retained a sense of realism about the course of current events. The young man certainly didn't lack for confidence in his abilities either, as evidenced by a request he'd made to Athrun to have a simulator fight with him before they actually deployed. Athrun was actually looking forward to it; Heine's confidence did not seem to border on arrogance, and it would be interesting to see how a member of FAITH operated a mobile suit.

"At times," said Heine as they floated through the hangar, "it can be difficult to actually think of the _Gondwana _as a ship at all. In some respects she's more like a small mobile, space-borne city."

"I heard a rumor that she's actually capable of operating on Earth, too," said Athrun, "Is that true?"

Heine nodded. "In a constrained fashion, yes. She is capable of handing the stress of atmospheric entry; her armor is remarkably strong. The hull's actually seaworthy and designed to float, so the ship can touch down on the surface, albeit only in deep bodies of water. In practice, this limits her operations on Earth itself to the ocean."

"How would she return to space?" asked Athrun, "She's too large for any of the mass drivers."

"That's true," Heine replied, "From what I understand, apparently there are a series of external boosters that can be attached to the carrier to return her to outer space. However, apparently the process to fit the boosters to the ship is quite time consuming and expensive. I can only imagine that the Defense Council would not have her descend to the surface in the first place unless our forces on Earth were in desperate need of reinforcement."

"Is she going to remain one of a kind?" asked Athrun.

Heine shrugged. "That's hard to say. On the one hand, constructing her consumed a serious portion of the military budget, and operating her is no small expense either. That being said, she's an undeniably valuable vessel which greatly expands our fleet's operational capacity without violating the limits of the Treaty of Junius Seven. I don't know if the Defense Council has plans to construct another one of her on the books, but it's a distinct possibility."

Athrun chuckled ruefully. "My father would've killed to have a ship like this in his fleet."

"He got close," said Heine, "The _Orizaba_-class carrier/dreadnoughts were impressive, and those that survived the war remain a crucial part of our fleet."

"Maybe," said Athrun, "but still… they're not quite as imposing as this ship is."

Heine smiled. "Quite true."

He then looked up ahead and nodded. "Well, here we are. Your new mobile suit, Athrun Zala."

It was a green ZAKU Phantom, which was definitely a step up from the standard ZAKU Warrior that he had flown during his time aboard the _Minerva_. The unit wasn't fitted with a Wizard Pack yet, but Athrun planned on having a Blaze Pack attached to it before he went into battle; he appreciated that augmentation's capacity to increase the mobile suit's firepower and agility. Heine's unit was right next to his. It was the exact same model, and the only difference was that it was colored bright orange instead of the standard green.

"It's no Justice," said Heine, "but it'll hold its own in a fight."

Athrun nodded. "I saw Rey using one when I was on the _Minerva_. It performs pretty well."

"Yes," said Heine, "and with it, a skilled pilot can use it to fight the stolen prototypes on even ground. Perhaps it lacks Phase Shift Armor, but its other attributes more than make up for that."

"There's only one of those prototypes left now in enemy hands," said Athrun, "The Gaia's a tough mobile suit, but if I meet it in battle I'm pretty sure I can match it, even if I only have a ZAKU Phantom."

Heine smiled. "I'm glad to hear it. Hopefully we'll be able to capture the unit. It would be a shame to destroy it and completely waste the efforts of those who designed it."

"Do you think it'll show up if the Alliance attacks the PLANTs?" asked Athrun.

Heine shrugged. "It's hard to say. I know that the Fleet Intelligence Service has been trying to track it down since the orbital battle, but I haven't heard any news of success. There's no way to tell when or where it will show up next."

"It's too bad Heero destroyed the other two machines," said Athrun, "I'm sure the Chairman would've liked the chance to recapture them along with the Gaia."

Heine nodded. "Indeed. I suppose that can't be helped, though. It's no surprise that they were destroyed; there are very few pilots who can survive an encounter with the legendary Heero Yuy, regardless of what type of mobile suit they're flying. You're one of the lucky ones, if I recall correctly."

Athrun smiled. "Yeah. Looking back on it, I'm kind of amazed that I was able to come out of those fights alive, especially since I was using the Aegis back when I went up against Heero instead of the Justice."

"The fact that you were able to do so speaks volumes of your skills," Heine replied, "In my opinion, that alone ought to qualify you for FAITH membership. If we both survive the coming fight I can't see why I _wouldn't _recommend that the Chairman bring you into our ranks, all things considered."

Athrun's eyes widened. "Are you serious?"

Heine nodded and smiled. "Oh, absolutely. We're not just another incarnation of your late father's Special Operations Squadrons. Sure, some members of ZAFT's regular forces might call us Durandal's Praetorian Guard, but I can assure you that that is a gross misconception. The Chairman and the Supreme Council do not simply seek out loyal and skilled pilots and invite them to join our ranks. Every member of FAITH brings a unique perspective and set of experiences to the group. You could say that being an extraordinary individual is a prerequisite for joining, and based on everything you went through in the last war I would say that you certainly meet the criteria. I also heard about your actions at Armory One and the orbital battle, and that has only further cemented my belief that you truly do belong in our ranks. I'm sure that the Chairman feels the same way."

"Thanks," said Athrun.

It felt strange to be receiving such praise from a member of the military that he had defected from in the last war. He'd never met Heine before today, and while he certainly believed that his guide had served in ZAFT under the old regime it was a little hard to imagine a guy as outgoing and relaxed as him being part of the same armed force that had come all too close to wiping out mankind on Earth.

"By the way," said Heine, "you're not the only one that I or the Chairman would like to see join FAITH."

Athrun raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"There's no need to play coy," Heine replied, "I know that you're not the only ZAFT defector that took up residence in the Orb Union at the end of the war. The Chairman didn't just remove the warrant issued for you; charges against Yzak Joule and Dearka Elsman have been dropped as well. In fact, quite recently the Chairman issued a general amnesty for those who felt pushed to abandon ZAFT when it was under the control of your father; he felt that it was long overdue."

"Huh," said Athrun, unable to completely hide his skepticism, "I hadn't heard about that."

Heine shrugged. "Well, that's not too surprising. As I said, it was quite recent, and the news cycle has been rather preoccupied with other matters as of late."

"Okay," said Athrun, "So why bring this up to me now?"

Heine sighed. "The Chairman wanted me to show a little more tact, but the sort of eloquence that he's looking for really isn't my strong point. Besides, political double talk and circling around the point isn't the way to earn the trust of someone like you. I'll be blunt; the Chairman would consider it a great favor if you used your influence with the members of the old Thee Ships Alliance who were once part of ZAFT to convince them to come home. Our military can certainly use their talents; it's no secret that our ranks were decimated in the last war, especially during the final battle. We don't have nearly enough veteran officers to provide our new recruits with effective leadership. If even a handful of the defectors from the last war came back into the fold, I imagine that the capabilities of our forces would be considerably amplified."

Athrun shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I don't think I'll be of much use to you or the Chairman there. When they left ZAFT, they were pretty adamant on never coming back."

"Perhaps they were back then," said Heine, his eyes narrowing, "but that was two years ago. _You're _back now, after all. Who's to say that the others haven't had a change of heart over the years?"

"Trust me," said Athrun, "that's not going to happen."

Heine shrugged. "That's unfortunate, especially since the offer would be open to more than just those who left ZAFT. Former members of the Earth forces would be welcome too, and that even extends to the Coordinator that once fought for them."

"You don't know Kira very well," Athrun replied, "He's not about to let himself be used by ZAFT, especially not after what happened in the last war."

Heine sighed. "That is a shame. Well, perhaps after you've spent some time back in uniform you'll reconsider broaching the offer to your friends. The Chairman's quite patient, after all."

"I hope he's not holding his breath," said Athrun, "Nothing personal, Heine, but what you're asking me to do isn't going to happen."

Heine nodded. "If you insist. It's not vital to my evaluation of you; it's just something that the Chairman wanted you to consider."

"So is that another role the Chairman gives members of FAITH?" asked Athrun, "He uses them to pass along items for 'consideration' to people?"

Heine smiled. "We are the direct representatives of both the Chairman and the Supreme Council within the armed forces, and we answer only to them. If they ask us to encourage a particular course of action within the ranks, then it is our duty to do so unless we find their request to be objectionable."

Athrun's eyes narrowed. "And if you refuse?"

"We're not punished," said Heine, "Not if we can present a strong case for our objections. The Chairman does prefer to surround himself with people who think for themselves, after all. Raising dissent is not punished so long as it is done so respectfully and with an eye towards presenting a better course of action. In fact, you could say that such constructive criticism is encouraged."

Athrun was skeptical, although he didn't say as much. Perhaps his experiences with his late father were influencing his perspective more than they should, but he had a hard time imagining that the Chairman would give agents of his will that kind of discretion, let alone tolerate criticism from them.

"Well," Heine continued, "I'm sure you'll learn more about FAITH and the role its members play as time goes on. Trust me; if you become a member, your perspective will certainly shift."

"We'll see," said Athrun.

Not for the first time, Athrun had to wonder if he was getting in over his head here. He'd only returned to the PLANTs so he could take on a role that would let him make a difference and either stop a new war from happening or make sure that whatever new conflict broke out was a short one. While he'd been hoping for a position that had some sort of influence, joining the ranks of FAITH wasn't what he'd had in mind. However, if it meant that he could truly use his talents to their full extent, would it really be so bad if he joined an organization that answered only to the Chairman and the Supreme Council?

_I guess I'll just have to wait and see_, he thought, _Of course, I have to survive the coming battle first…_

….

Eric Bristow looked up from the computer monitor and smiled as the young man he'd been waiting for entered the room. "Heero, thanks for coming!"

Wing Zero's pilot nodded. "You said it was important, so I came as soon as I was able to."

"I hope you don't mind that I tagged along," said Murrue as she came into the room behind him, "We were in the middle of lunch when you called."

To Eric's right his wife smiled. "Don't sweat it, Murrue."

"I didn't expect you to be here too, Shemei," said Heero.

The Valkyrie shrugged. "I was helping Eric browse through some files he got from his contacts when he made his discovery. We're going to forward this along to Andrew, but we wanted to get your thoughts on it before we did that."

Heero nodded. "All right, but I'm going to need some context."

"Right," said Eric as he tapped some keys, "Give me a second."

The room they were in was actually part of the subterranean bunker complex that sprawled beneath the mansion owned by Terminal. It was dedicated to information analysis, and as the group's unofficial spymaster it was a room that Eric spent a lot of his time in, especially in recent days with tensions spiking across the Earth Sphere. His desk occupied the center of the room, but there were multiple monitors and consoles along the walls, along with several larger screens for group viewing.

One of the wall monitors came to life, and Eric saw Heero's eyes narrow as he studied the data. "These look like appropriations figures."

Murrue was peering intently at the information as well. "Is this for ZAFT's fleet?"

Eric nodded. "Yup. An old acquaintance of mine forwarded this to me this morning. He's an aide for ZAFT's Budget Committee, so he's got quite a bit of access. What you're seeing are the planned ship construction figures for the next year."

Shemei folded her arms. "They're definitely upping their firepower. More _Nazca_-class destroyers slated to come on line; looks like they're still phasing out the older _Laurasia_-class frigates."

"There're more than a few _Hel_-class cruisers slated for construction too," said Murrue softly.

It was Heero who found the big ticket items buried in the data. "Two more _Gondwana_-class carriers and three _Orizaba_-class carrier/dreadnoughts… does ZAFT really have the available dock space necessary for constructing all these?"

Eric smiled. "I'm glad you asked. Check this out."

A second wall monitor came to life right next to the first one. Like the first one it was almost solid text, but Eric knew that his friends were sharp enough to sift through the data and make sense of it.

"These look like shipyard schedules," said Murrue.

Shemei nodded. "Maintenance timeframes and rotations, along with new work orders, I think."

"It doesn't match the Budget Committee's construction figures," said Heero, leaning forward slightly, "The work orders for new ship construction here are mostly for _Nazca_-class vessels, along with a few _Hel_-class cruisers. Everything else is maintenance rotations for existing ships. None of the docks capable of building ships on the scale of the _Gondwana _or _Orizaba_-class vessels have new construction orders for either type of warship."

Murrue shook her head. "That doesn't make any sense. ZAFT's a professional military organization; there's no way that there should be this big of a discrepancy between the Budget Committee's figures and the shipyard work schedules."

Eric sighed. "That's because the Budget Committee's figures are fake. Well, some of them, anyway."

"What do you mean?" asked Heero.

"It's an accounting trick," Eric replied, "and it was used in the last war by the Zala regime. Basically they pad the official budget with costs for warships that they aren't actually planning to construct. It's a way of hiding what those funds are really meant for."

He saw his wife's eyes widen as the proverbial light bulb flicked on. "That's one of the ways they kept the construction of GENESIS hidden, wasn't it?"

Eric nodded. "Exactly. If you only saw the data from the Budget Committee then you wouldn't be able to tell, but by comparing it with the activity that's actually scheduled to take place at the shipyards themselves you can cut through the smokescreen."

"So none of the carriers or dreadnoughts listed will be built," said Heero, folding his arms, "In that case…"

"What are those funds really for?" Murrue finished for him.

"That's the big question," said Eric grimly, "and it's one that I haven't found an answer for yet. My contacts are still digging around, but it's going to take time for them to get to the bottom of this. Whatever Durandal and the Supreme Council are up to, they're trying to keep a tight lid on it."

"Andrew needs to know about this," said Shemei, "If Durandal's keeping this quiet, then I doubt it's anything good."

"Especially when you consider that the last time the rulers of the PLANTs employed this trick it was to conceal the creation of GENESIS," said Murrue softly.

"It can't be mobile suits," Heero replied, "The amount of funds we're talking about here are simply too big, and that's including the possibility for nuclear powered units. Whatever the Durandal government has in the works, it's on a massive scale."

"No argument there," said Eric, "I'm going to have my contacts extend their search. When Zala was building GENESIS he didn't just need to hide the transfer of funds. Physical resources, laborers and specialists had to be shuffled around too."

"You got something in mind?" asked Shemei.

Eric nodded. "I'm going to see if our network can dig up new personnel transfer orders. We'll start with the top tier specialists; weapons designers, nuclear engineers, that sort of thing. Checking out the defense contractors and design bureaus could turn up something too, especially if they've gotten new work orders that they're trying to keep off the books."

"Are the designers that worked on GENESIS still in the PLANTs?" asked Murrue, "If they are, it's possible that they could be drafted to work on this new project."

"That's true," Eric replied, "and they're one of the first groups I'm going to have my network check out. To my knowledge they're still in the PLANTs; their skills are just too valuable for any regime to lose, even if they worked on a weapon that nearly ended all life on Earth."

"How do the redirected funds here stack up when compared to those diverted to GENESIS?" asked Heero.

Eric's eyes narrowed. "Hard to say. Right now we still don't have a full picture. It's entirely possible that ZAFT's diverting funds from more than just the space fleet for whatever this project might be. If my contacts can acquire the budgets and work orders from other sectors of the military like the army or surface navy we might be able to get a better idea as to what we could be dealing with here."

"The military might not be the only group that's in on this project," said Shemei, "Depending on what's involved, Durandal could be bringing in outside groups as well; ones that normally would work on civilian projects."

"That's risky," said Heero, "He'd have to work extra hard to ensure their silence. Bringing in any outside civilian contractors could compromise whatever it is that ZAFT's working on."

"Perhaps," said Murrue, "but it's still an angle worth checking out."

Eric nodded. "Agreed. I can already think of a few groups that might be brought in, depending on the kind of work involved. Their security won't be as tight as ZAFT's, so it should be easier to get information out of them. With any luck, maybe we'll find something that'll help us start to unravel this mystery."

Shemei shuddered. "I hope so. It's bad enough knowing that ZAFT's got something big in the works. Who knows what the Earth Alliance could be cooking up on their end?"

Eric sighed. "I know what you mean. We just don't have the same kind of access when it comes to the Earth forces. All we can do is watch carefully and be ready for the worst."

"Speaking of the Alliance," said Heero, "they're still massing their assault force on their side of the Zero Line, right? Any changes there?"

Eric shook his head. "Not according to my contacts in ZAFT's Fleet Intelligence Service. The number's still at around a thousand, and given that we've got less than a day until the President's deadline passes I doubt that number's going to change."

"It won't be enough to break through ZAFT's defenses in a head on assault," said Murrue, "That means they have to have nukes with them. It's the only thing that makes sense."

Shemei nodded. "You're right. ZAFT's going to have their work cut out for them."

"If they do have a countermeasure," said Heero, "we'll see it in action soon enough."

"I wish we could be up there to help," said Eric, "but with the Atlantic Federation's Pacific Fleet bearing down on us, we can't afford to transfer our forces to outer space. We just have no idea if the Americans are going to strike Carpentaria or if they'll attack Orb too. With the way their fleet's moving it could be either target at this point."

"Cagalli has to be aware of that," said Murrue, "Why hasn't she mobilized Orb's armed forces?"

"I asked Kisaka about that," Eric replied, "Apparently she's been trying to mediate between the Atlantic Federation and the PLANTs, but the Seirans and her ministers are undermining her. At the same time, she's worried about taking any action that either the Earth Alliance or ZAFT might interpret as an act of aggression. She still wants to preserve the Orb Union's status as a neutral nation."

"Neutral or not, at this point she has to mobilize her military," said Heero firmly, "She has to send a message that Orb won't allow either the Alliance or ZAFT to simply steamroll over them."

Eric nodded. "Kisaka felt the same way, and I think Andrew does too. Still, her hands are tied. As much as she might want to stand up to the Alliance's bullying, her government's compromised."

"The Seirans," Shemei hissed, "It's too bad Unato and Yuna didn't die when Elysium got hit in the last war. It would've saved us a lot of trouble."

Murrue shook her head. "I don't get it. What do they have to gain by undermining Cagalli at a time of crisis? If the Alliance moves against Orb they'll be under threat as well."

Eric shook his head. "I don't think so. From what I've learned from Kisaka, it seems that the Seirans have pretty extensive financial ties with the Atlantic Federation. If I had to take a guess, I'd say that whoever's pulling the strings in the American government's been keeping in touch with them. Unato and Yuna are known to be pro-Earth Alliance, after all, and I'm sure the Atlantic Federation's well aware of that. If the Seirans are willing to influence the Orb government in a way that benefits the Alliance then it will be difficult for Cagalli to act against them."

"Members of Orb's five noble families have a lot of legal leeway," said Heero grimly, "They could collaborate with a foreign power but still present it as something other than treason. It's much harder for Cagalli to make a move against them without concrete evidence that they're actively undermining their country."

"But it'd be easier for us, right?" said Shemei, "We are off the grid, after all."

Murrue shook her head. "It's not that simple. Cagalli might not be able to officially acknowledge us, but it's an open secret that we support her. If we made a move against the Seirans people could assume that she ordered us to do so. It would weaken her legitimacy within the government."

Eric nodded. "Murrue's right. Our best bet is to keep digging up information on them and hope that Unato and his son get cocky and overreach. If we can expose the right sort of dirt on them, or if they take actions that the people widely disapprove of and recognize as their actions and not Cagalli's, then we can move to neutralize their influence within the government."

"Unfortunately, that will take time," said Heero, a dark look in his eyes, "and with the Earth Alliance forces on the move, time is not on our side."

Shemei sighed. "Damn it. I can't stand this. The world's about to go to war again, Cagalli's got people in her government who are poised to stab her in the back at any moment, and we can't do a thing about it! Give me a straight up fight any day; I hate this political bullshit."

Murrue put her hand on Shemei's shoulder. "You're not alone there. It'll change, though. We don't have what we need to bring down the Seirans right now, but if we keep investigating them we'll find the silver bullet sooner or later."

Shemei nodded. "I know. It'd just be so much easier if we could assassinate them and be done with it. I'm pretty sure at least half of us here have the skills to pull that off."

"Their time will come," said Heero, "One way or another, we'll get our chance to strike against them. Right now we need to focus on the Earth Alliance. If their fleet hits Orb, we're the best defense; the Seirans will likely compromise Cagalli's control over the military. If they move against Carpentaria, then we can tail them and wait for the right opportunity to attack."

Eric leaned back in his chair. "It all depends on which way Alliance's surface forces move. We'll find out soon enough."

….

Working hard to keep her breathing under control, Flay Allster looked down the sight of her pistol. Her eyes narrowing, she imagined the target downrange was Muruta Azrael, and she pulled the trigger. Firing until her clip was empty, she then flipped a switch on the right wall of her stall on the shooting range. The paper target was brought forward by a sliding rack system mounted along the ceiling, giving Flay the chance to examine her shot grouping. They had all hit in the center of the target's mass, although only one was actually a bull's eye.

"Not bad," said a familiar male voice from behind her.

She turned around and smiled at her boyfriend. "You think so?"

Yzak nodded. "Sure. Your shot grouping's pretty consistent."

She sighed as she looked at the target he was holding; all his shots were dead center. "Not as good as yours, though."

Yzak shook his head. "Don't worry about mine. Focus only on improving your skills."

"That's easy for you to say," she replied, "You're barely even trying and you still do better than me."

"It's not like that," said Yzak, "I've had military training, plus I'm a Coordinator. You only really started shooting after Badgiruel recovered you at Mendel, right? I'd say that I have a pretty unfair advantage over you. You've come a long way over the last two years."

Flay folded her arms. "You're just trying to be nice to me, aren't you?"

Yzak smiled. "Maybe. What's wrong with that?"

Flay couldn't help but smile in return. "Nothing at all."

She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek before looking back at her target. "Still, I'd like to at least get a little better at this before the fighting starts."

"You're doing fine," said Yzak, "Besides, it's not like you're going to be using your gun on a regular bases. You work on the bridge of the _Archangel_. If you need your gun there then it means something's gone very wrong."

Flay shook her head. "It doesn't matter. I still want to be ready, just in case."

Yzak put his hand on her shoulder. "You _are _ready. Your shooting's pretty good for a bridge officer. The skills that really count are the ones you'll be using when the _Archangel _goes into battle, and you did just fine in the fight up at the Junius Seven ruins."

Flay shuddered. "I don't know… I felt like I was scared stiff during that fight."

"I can't blame you there, considering what the stakes were," said Yzak, "but you still held it together and did your duty. That's what really matters."

Flay nodded. "Thanks. I just hope I'll be able to keep it together when the fighting starts again. We won't be up against ZAFT renegades this time; it'll be the Earth Alliance. I know I left two years ago, but…"

"You still think of it as home, right?" Yzak finished for her.

Flay sighed. "Is it wrong that I do? I mean, after all they did I should've been able to completely leave the Atlantic Federation behind, but still…"

Yzak shook his head and smiled. "It's not wrong. I think I'm the same way, really; part of me still thinks of the PLANTs as home. I can't go back, and I have no plans on doing so, but the sentiment's still there."

Her eyes widened; she'd never heard him mention that before. "Yzak…"

Yzak smirked in response. "Don't worry about it. It's just a bit of sentimentality. Like I said, I'm not going back. Even if they rescinded the warrant on my head for treason, it'd be a bit awkward going back to the same country that my mom's serving a prison sentence in for aiding and abetting a mass murderer."

Flay looked down; she'd completely forgotten about that. "I'm sorry. I thought I had it bad because my dad died, but you and your mom… I don't know what's worse."

Yzak shook his head. "Me neither. My dad wasn't in government, so to my knowledge he's still free, but… well, he and my mom had pretty much the same line when it came to politics, so I doubt he'd be happy to see me again after what I did in the war."

"I don't know what my dad would say if he were still alive," said Flay, "He was pretty high up in the Atlantic Federation, so… I don't think he'd be happy that I turned against it. I don't know if he believed what Azrael did, but I remember that he wasn't too fond of Coordinators."

Yzak sighed. "We didn't exactly have model families, did we?"

Flay smiled and grabbed his hand. "Not before, but we have a new family now, and it's one that we can be proud of."

Yzak nodded and smiled. "You're right about that. It's a pretty badass one too when you think about it. I mean, we've got enough firepower to make both the Alliance and ZAFT pretty nervous."

Flay couldn't help but giggle. "That's true. I wonder what daddy would say if he found out that I was friends with the man who destroyed the Alaska base."

Yzak chuckled. "He'd probably have the same reaction as my mom if I told her that I was working with the one who destroyed Avalon and GENESIS. That's not counting the rest of our friends; with all of us put together I'm pretty sure we've wiped out a few fleets worth of ships and mobile suits from both ZAFT and the Alliance."

Flay nodded. "Good point. I just hope that we don't have to stack up as big of a body count this time around."

Yzak shrugged. "We'll find out soon enough."

He then stepped forward and put both hands on her shoulders, taking her by surprise. "Yzak…"

His expression as he spoke was dead serious. "Flay… no matter what happens, I won't fail you like I did at Mendel. I promise that I'll keep you safe."

Flay couldn't help but smile even as she shook her head. "Yzak, how many times do I have to tell you? You didn't fail me back then. If you'd tried to stop Creuset from sending me to Azrael he would've killed you; we both know that. It wasn't your fault, and I'll never blame you for it. Let it go, all right?"

"Even so," he replied with determination, "I won't let the Alliance _or _ZAFT get their hands on you. I'll take down anyone who comes after you. After what we survived two years ago, there's no way that I'm losing you now."

She leaned forward and kissed him. "Same here. Maybe you want to protect me, but don't forget that I'll be on the _Archangel _while you'll be flying your mobile suit. You're the one who'll be in greater danger, so you'd better be careful. You're not allowed to die on me, you got that?"

Yzak smirked. "Is that an order?"

"You bet it is," Flay shot back.

He gave her a mock salute. "Well, then, I'll do my best to follow it."

….

"You know," said Dearka from behind her, "you really don't have to watch this crap."

Miriallia couldn't help but jump as she looked over her shoulder. "How long were you there?"

Dearka shrugged as he came around and joined her on the couch. "Not long. Seriously, do you really need to watch the Atlantic Federation's news broadcasts? I mean, I'm all for staying informed on current events, but it's not like you're going to get a good picture by listening to the Americans."

Miriallia shook her head. "It's not enough to simply be well informed. By listening to enemy propaganda you can get a better idea as to how they think. Yes, what the North American broadcast networks are spewing out is absolutely vile, but it's also content that millions of people absorb on a daily basis. That has an effect, whether the population realizes it or not. In order to fight back against the fear and hatred the hardliner pundits infect the populace with, we have to first understand their talking points and develop effective means of debunking them."

Dearka smiled. "That's a noble goal, but I can't see us challenging the Atlantic Federation's news networks for influence over their own people anytime soon. Lacus may be a genius when it comes to public relations and inspiring others, but even she has her limits. I doubt the Alliance would let any of her messages get out over their official networks, and they've probably got some heavy-duty filters set online too."

Miriallia smirked. "They can try to filter opposition content all they want, but they can't completely control what their population sees on the web no matter how hard they try. I've checked out some of the underground social media sites to sample any dissident views coming out of people in North America; you'd be surprised at what some of them are saying. The Atlantic Federation isn't quite as cut off from the message of our cause as its rulers would like it to be. The tighter an authoritarian regime tries to grasp, the more that those who seek a brighter future search for ways to make their voices heard."

Dearka chuckled. "Sounds like something Lacus would say."

"She _did _say that, actually," Miriallia replied, "It's something she told me after we got set up here. Her words were actually part of the reason why I agreed to let Mister Bristow teach me the ways of intelligence gathering; I wanted to learn how to find those who oppose people like the monsters we fought against in the last war and show them that they're not alone. If I can do something to inspire them to stand up for what's right like we did, then that would help our cause."

Dearka whistled. "That's ambitious. Any ideas about how to pull that off?"

Miriallia sighed. "Nothing concrete. I've bounced some off of Lacus, but it's definitely a case of easier said than done. Mister Bristow's right; we just don't have the same level of access within the Earth Alliance as we do in the Orb Union and the PLANTs. We need more connections and sympathizers in positions of authority so we can influence a broader opposition movement and learn more about who we're up against."

Dearka shook his head. "And this is why I prefer flying a mobile suit; it's much simpler to shoot the enemies right in front of me than fight them in a war of ideas and information. That sort of thing's way over my head."

Miriallia chuckled ruefully. "It might be over mine, too. I don't know how we're supposed to get the Atlantic Federation to change its policies. It doesn't matter if we beat them on the battlefield if they just regroup and come back later to attack Coordinators again. We need a long-term solution, but without identifying people within the Earth Alliance that could act to change the direction they're going in I don't see how we can accomplish that. Even if we do find people like that there's still the matter of contacting them and helping them organize against the ruling elite."

"That's not your job, though," said Dearka, "Your post is in the _Archangel_'s CIC. I know Bristow gave you intelligence training, but the kind of thing you're talking about is outside of that. It sounds more like something for him and Lacus to try to tackle."

Miriallia nodded. "I know. It's still something that I want to help with, though. I feel like that's the way for us to really make a long-term difference in this world. By winning the battle of hearts and minds, we could accomplish so much more than we could just through military victories. That's the best path for us to forge a future where another war like the one we went through can't happen again."

Dearka put his arm around her. "Well, if anyone can figure out how to do that, I think it's you. You're a lot smarter than I am, after all."

Miriallia smirked as she kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks. That really goes without saying, though."

"Hey," Dearka pouted, "I was giving you a compliment! You don't need to rub it in my face like that!"

"Sure I do," Miriallia shot back, "Someone's gotta keep you in your place."

Dearka chuckled. "Touché."

Miriallia picked up the remote. "Well, I think I've watched enough of this bile for now. Is there anything good on?"

"How about the classic zombie movie marathon on channel 57?" Dearka suggested with a grin.

"Oh, yeah," said Miriallia, "It's that time of year, isn't it? I totally forgot about that."

Dearka shrugged. "Well, considering we're about to go to war again, I can't really blame you for that. So, zombies?"

Miriallia smiled as she changed the channel. "Zombies it is."

….

Sighing as he looked up at the sky, Kira imagined that he could see the hourglass colonies of L5 floating above the Earth. "I hope he's okay."

"You're really worried about Athrun, aren't you?" asked a familiar female voice from behind him.

Kira turned around and saw Lacus approaching him. "Of course I am. Aren't you?"

Lacus nodded as she joined him at the railing. "Yes, and I do hope that he is all right, but we also have to recognize that he is currently beyond our reach. The decision to return to the PLANTs was entirely Athrun's own, and he will have to deal with the consequences himself."

Kira's eyes widened. "How can you say that? What if he gets into trouble up there?"

Lacus shook her head. "I do not mean to sound heartless, Kira. Of course I fear for Athrun's safety, just like you do. However, that does not change the fact that there is very little that we can do for him if the current PLANT government reacts poorly to Athrun's return. Mister Bristow's network of contacts and informants may be able to let us know if he has been imprisoned or worse, but direct action to help him is beyond our capabilities at this time. We have to recognize that."

She reached over and took his hand. "Athrun is a strong and resilient person. He'll be all right, Kira. Besides, I know that he wouldn't want us to worry about him at a time like this. He would want us to focus on doing our part to protect this world, and we cannot do that effectively if we are distracted."

Kira smiled. "You're right. I just wish that he'd listened to me and Heero; I don't like the idea of him getting sucked back into ZAFT."

"Nor do I," Lacus admitted, "Patrick Zala and his followers may no longer rule the PLANTs, but we do not know enough about Chairman Durandal and his administration for us to fully trust their intentions. At present the government's goal may simply be to defend the PLANTs, but that could very well change once the Earth Alliance's opening assault is repelled."

"Can we really be so sure that ZAFT will be able to beat back the Alliance attack?" asked Kira, "What if they have nukes? Everyone else here seems to think that they do."

Lacus nodded. "Yes, but Mister Bristow and Mister Waltfeld seem confident in ZAFT's ability to counter such a scenario. We have to trust that they know what they're doing. Besides, with the Pacific Fleet heading this way we cannot afford to move to intervene in the coming battle at L5. We still do not know if the Atlantic Federation surface navy is only targeting Carpentaria or if they mean to invade Orb like they did in the last war."

Kira clenched the railing in frustration. "I hate this. It feels like there's nothing that we can do to stop this new war from starting! What's the purpose of what we've built here if we can't do that?"

Lacus shook her head. "I understand how you feel, but we have to accept the limits of our power. There are forces at work here beyond our control, and the ones driving them clearly desire conflict. When our efforts to stop a new war from beginning fail, we must shift our priorities and focus on defending those that we have the power to protect. If the Atlantic Federation decides to bring Orb into its camp through force of arms, then Cagalli's military will not be enough to stem the tide. We must be prepared to act to defend the people of this land where Coordinators and Naturals have proven that it is possible to live together in peace. The Orb Union is more than just our new home; it is a symbol of the world that we strive to create."

Kira sighed. "I know that, but still… it feel like we're just sitting around when we should be acting."

Lacus smiled. "We are hardly idle, Kira, and you know that. All of us in our own way are preparing for the struggle to come. In the last war we acted where our strength was needed the most, where it could have the greatest impact. It is the same here; we are keeping watch and waiting for the right time to take action."

Kira looked up at the sky. "I guess I'm just having a hard time accepting that it's come to this. After all the suffering and death the world endured in the last war, I can't believe that it's about to jump into another one."

Lacus nodded solemnly. "I understand completely. At the end of the last war, I had allowed myself for a time to hope that our world had learned the same lessons that Heero's had; that sheer scope, carnage, and incredible stakes of the final battle had robbed the people of both the Earth Alliance and ZAFT of the will to fight. Mankind was brought to the brink of annihilation, and it was through our efforts that it was given a second chance. I believed that the leaders of both sides would take it and devote their efforts to reconstruction and reconciliation."

She looked down and sighed. "After the treaty signing, when Heero came to visit our island and tell me about his misgivings, his doubts as to whether or not our peace would last… I wanted to believe that he was wrong. I wanted so badly to believe that our world was like his; that mankind in the Cosmic Era could turn its energies towards disarmament and healing, that a new era of world peace could be forged. I may have conceded that we had to prepare for the worst and lent my resources to those efforts, but… I dearly prayed that we would never have to use them. I wanted our days of fighting to be done, but it was not to be."

She turned back to Kira again, and he was startled by the fresh determination in her eyes. "The peace that we fought so hard for in the last war may have failed, but I refuse to lose hope. I am willing to do my part in whatever fighting lies ahead, and I will put my faith in our ability to save this world again. We may be about to plunge into a new war, but we have the power to not only make a difference on the battlefield but in the aftermath as well. When this is all over, we will forge a new peace, and I will devote all of my energy to make it endure. Are you with me, Kira?"

Kira nodded. "Of course."

How could he not be at this point? After all that they'd been through together in the last war, it was impossible for Kira to abandon his commitment to Lacus and her ideals now. Whenever he felt uncertain about the path that he and Terminal were taking, she was always there to give him reassurance and inspiration. The world that she wanted to build was the one that _he _wanted to build; for him, committing himself to that goal helped give some kind of meaning to all the lives that had been lost in the last war.

Lacus smiled. "Thank you, Kira. The road before us may be long and difficult, but together we can persevere and see this through to a new dawn."

"I know," he replied, his confidence growing, "I'll give it everything I've got."

Lacus leaned forward to kiss him. "I'm sure you will."

….

Taking a sip of his coffee, Andrew Waltfeld smiled as he savored the taste. "Ah, this one brings back memories."

"Which blend is it, Andy?" asked Aisha as she poured herself a fresh cup.

Andrew chuckled. "The one I came up with back in North Africa. It was right before the _Archangel _touched down on our turf."

Aisha smirked. "In that case, I can definitely see the nostalgic value. That seems like a lifetime ago."

_No kidding_, he thought, _I can't believe all that was just over two years back. Am I really still in my thirties? I feel _much _older after all we've been through since then. I wonder if Eric feels the same way…_

Aisha smiled as she sat down across the table from him. "You're not about to start going gray on me, are you?"

The Desert Tiger smirked as he ran his hand through his hair. "I'm surprised I don't have gray hairs cropping up already. Running a paramilitary group dedicated to keeping two superpowers from wiping each other out definitely isn't easy, that's for sure."

Aisha chuckled before taking a sip of her coffee. "Well, you don't look any worse for the wear. Besides, if the Desert Tiger goes gray, he'll be quite the silver fox."

Andrew grinned. "That's one way to look at it."

_Have to keep looking for that silver lining_, he thought, _and that's not a bad one. Still, I'm amazed I've held up until now. I may still have some mileage left, but I've got plenty of wear and tear. We all do, really, and we'll have a good deal more before this is all over._

The two of them were upstairs in the private quarters they shared at Terminal's estate. They'd just finished going over another batch of intelligence files and were taking a well deserved brake. Outside the late afternoon sun still blazed, but it was moving lower on the horizon.

He looked across the coffee table at his wife. "So you really don't think that we're getting too old for this?"

Aisha shook her head. "We've seen more action that I'd like, but I still got plenty of fight left in me. You do too, don't you?"

Andrew smiled. "As long as you're willing to stick it out with me."

Aisha nodded. "Always."

He closed his good eye for a moment, considering some of the information the two of them had reviewed earlier. "I may be up for another round or two, but I'd at least like to know what I'm getting myself into. Eric's done a good job, but there're still too many gaps in our knowledge for my liking."

"What are you more worried about?" asked Aisha, her expression becoming serious, "The Earth Alliance or ZAFT?"

He sighed. "As strange as it is to say this… ZAFT, actually."

Aisha raised an eyebrow. "Really? Granted, we know less about the new leadership than we'd like to, but whatever else Chairman Durandal is he doesn't strike me as a rehash of Patrick Zala. I doubt genocide is among his intentions. The Earth Alliance is a different matter; based on their rhetoric and activity we've got a pretty good idea as to what they're hoping to accomplish."

Andrew nodded. "I know, but despite their brutality and ruthlessness the Alliance at least follows a familiar script. We know what their real motives are; we have from the beginning. The PLANTs under Durandal are another matter. This war may start for ZAFT as a defensive action, but I've got a feeling it won't stay that way."

"What makes you say that?" asked Aisha, "I mean, sure, Durandal's made some controversial moves in the past. Armory One would be the standout example, especially if he was telling Heero the truth about the end goal being an entire colony city being set up at L4. Still, I can't see him fighting this war any other way than defensively. The people of the PLANTs wouldn't go along with him shifting gears and making this into a war of conquest; they're too wary after what happened with the Zala regime."

The Desert Tiger shook his head. "Normally I'd agree with you, but Durandal's not like Zala. Zala was cunning, but he lacked restraint; it was all too easy for his real agenda to slip into his public speeches. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together could've figured out how he _really _wanted to end the war, especially during the final campaigns; his filter pretty much went out the window right before Jachin Due."

He looked out at the sky before continuing. "Durandal's different. He's intelligent, discrete, and highly charismatic. His public persona's been well crafted; the people see him as a reformer and a visionary. They're not wrong in that regard, but there's more to him than that. He has an eye towards the long game, and he's very ambitious."

"That last bit could be said about anyone who goes into public service," Aisha countered, "It's not necessarily a bad thing, particularly if the energy behind it is harnessed and directed towards a noble goal."

"I agree with you there," Andrew replied, "but it's impossible for us to say for sure what Durandal's ultimate goal is in all this. His path towards politics and high office was rather unusual; he started out as a geneticist, of all things. A man like that doesn't go into politics for the usual reasons. He _wants _something, and I've got no idea what it is."

"So becoming Supreme Council Chairman wasn't an end in and of itself," said Aisha, her eyes narrowing, "Just the means."

Andrew nodded. "Yeah. Call me crazy, but I think his motives are still rooted in his background as a geneticist. I've got no proof whatsoever; it's just a hunch."

"Is there anything in his work from his time in that field that could offer a clue?" asked Aisha.

The Desert Tiger shrugged. "Hard to say. According to Eric, the work he did that's public knowledge was pretty conventional for someone in that field. It's what was done behind closed doors that might hold the key we're looking for. Don't forget, from what Eric's managed to dig up so far, Durandal has done work for the government in the past, and some of it was pretty hush-hush. Also, he was rumored to have connections to what went on out at Mendel, although there's no concrete evidence of that."

"Mendel…" said Aisha softly, "Could that have been one of the reasons why he chose L4 as the site for Armory One's construction? It's just outside of the debris field; that old colony's practically a stone's throw away."

Andrew's good eye widened slightly; he'd never considered that possibility. "You know… you might be onto something there."

"Do you think it's worth checking out?" asked Aisha.

Andrew nodded. "Back when we were at Mendel, the furthest any of us actually went inside that colony was when Kira and La Flaga were chasing Creuset. The colony definitely survived the war, so the facility that Kira and La Flaga found should still be intact. There could very well be something out there that can shed light on Durandal's motives."

"If it hasn't been disturbed since the battle out there," said Aisha, her eyes narrowing, "Remember, Armory One's been out there for a while now; Durandal's had plenty of time to dispatch operatives to Mendel if there's evidence out there that he'd rather not see the light of day."

"It still wouldn't be a bad idea for us to swing on out there and take a look for ourselves," Waltfeld replied, "I'll talk to DaCosta about it; he's in a better position to dispatch a team than we are."

"Are you sure about that?" asked Aisha, "You put him in charge of the _Eternal _and gave him strict orders not to compromise the location of her hidden dock. Sending out a team from that position does carry the risk of exposing him."

Andrew nodded. "I know, but I still think the potential for new intelligence makes it worth the danger. Besides, it's not like he's undefended up there. He's got the new pilots and their DOM Trooper units, plus we assigned another pilot to your old GuAIZ. If ZAFT or the Alliance does discover him, he's got enough firepower to fight his way to out."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," said Aisha, "I'd rather DaCosta keep our ace in the hole concealed for as long as possible. Besides, the _Eternal_'s not the only thing we're hiding there. The new model mobile suits are being developed there as well, and I'd rather not have ZAFT or the Earth Alliance finding them."

Andrew sighed. "I know what you mean. Those things are absolutely lethal, even when compared to their predecessors. No matter what, we can't let them fall into the wrong hands."

"When do you think they'll be ready for action?" asked Aisha, "Their specs are impressive, but it would still be nice to see what they're really capable of when the heat is on."

"They're coming along nicely," said Andrew, "From the last report I got, I'd say that they're pretty close to completion. Give them a couple more weeks and they'll be all set for live-fire trials."

Aisha sighed. "A couple weeks… who knows how the war will have developed by then?"

Andrew nodded. "I hear you. Unfortunately, we don't really get a say in the matter. That's the price you pay when you develop powerful but complex mobile suits; you have to wait to reap the fruits of your labor."

"I know," Aisha replied, "At least the pilots we built them for don't need them just yet. One still has his machine from the last war, and the other… well, given where Athrun's at right now, I'd say it's a good thing that he doesn't have his new mobile suit."

"Agreed," said Andrew, "ZAFT's got a very advanced mobile suit development program as is. The last thing I want is for them to have access to what we've been cooking up. That goes double for the Earth Alliance; the new unit they debuted at the Armory One raid is trouble enough as it is."

"Heero seemed to deal with it well enough," said Aisha with a smile.

Andrew chuckled. "True, but there're very few pilots out there that come close to his skill level. Besides, he wasn't able to actually destroy it, just force it to withdraw. Granted, had the circumstances of the encounters been different, I bet he could've taken it down. Still, the fact of the matter is that whoever's flying that mobile suit has now survived three battles with the deadliest pilot in the world. That means they'll be even more dangerous the next time we encounter them on the battlefield."

Aisha nodded. "We'll be ready for them and anything else that the Earth Alliance or ZAFT throws at us."

The Desert Tiger looked out the window again. "I hope you're right."

….

Climbing out of the cockpit of her Wraith, Priscilla looked to her right as Adaline exited her machine. "Nice match."

Her red-headed friend smiled and nodded. "Thanks. You almost had me at the end there."

Priscilla sighed as the hatch closed behind her. "Close but no cigar. That's always how it ends up when I try to take you on in a simulator fight."

"Hey, don't be like that," said Adaline as she walked over and patted Priscilla on the shoulder, "I still can't beat you on the firing range, remember?"

Priscilla smiled. That was just like Adaline; she always tried to find a way to make someone feel better about themselves. It was one of the reasons why she was considered the unofficial second-in-command of the Valkyrie Team; she could help lift people up in a way that Priscilla and Lan couldn't.

"I guess so," Priscilla replied.

"Come on," said Adaline, "Let's go grab something to drink."

It didn't take the two of them long to get from the hangar to the _Dominion_'s mess hall. After they each grabbed a water bottle they went out and headed for the battleship's topside observation deck.

_It's too bad the ship's not outside_, thought Priscilla as she leaned against the railing alongside Adaline, _I'd like to look at something other than the dock. Oh, well. It can't be helped right now._

All around the ship, the dock crews were hustling about, making last minute touchups and topping off supplies and ammunition. Everyone knew that the Earth Alliance's deadline was almost up, and they wanted to be sure that they ships and mobile suits of Terminal were ready to go at a moment's notice.

"Too bad Lan couldn't join us for that last round," said Priscilla.

Adaline shrugged. "She was here earlier today and got her practice time in. With the way things are going, I can't really blame her for wanting to get a little more time together with Quatre before the shit hits the fan."

Priscilla smirked. "You know, it's kind of funny. Back when she was taking him out to the club we didn't want her to make a move on him. Now we're totally fine with her hooking up with him whenever she gets the chance."

Adaline smiled. "I know what you mean. Normally I'd still be against it, but… well, Quatre's not a normal guy. He's made Lan happier than I've seen her in a long time."

Priscilla nodded. "Yeah. Back when her mom died, it felt like part of Lan almost died with her. Now she's got it back, and it's all thanks to him."

Adaline sighed. "It's too bad we all know how it has to end. That's going to be rough on her."

"Lan's a big girl," Priscilla replied, "She knew what she was getting into; she can deal with the consequences when the time comes."

Adaline winced. "That's harsh. Didn't expect that from _you_, Pris."

Priscilla smiled. "Sorry, I didn't mean for it to sound that way. Lan's a grown woman, and she's well aware that Quatre can't stay here when this is all over. He's not like Heero; he actually has obligations and people back in his world that he can't abandon for good. She knows that she's in for some pain, but she's strong. She'll get through it, and we can help her. Besides, knowing Quatre, I'm sure he'll do all he can to be gentle about it when this fling of theirs comes to an end. It won't take the hurt away entirely, but he seems like the kind of guy who'd try his best to soften the blow and make sure that they part on good terms."

"That's true," said Adaline, "If nothing else, Quatre seems like just about the nicest guy out there. It's kind of funny to think of him that way when you consider that he's a Gundam pilot."

Priscilla laughed. "I know, right? I guess being around Heero for so long gave us a certain impression about how Gundam pilots from his world are supposed to be. The only one that's anything like Heero is Trowa, but honestly he just strikes me as shy more than anything else."

Adaline smirked. "Shy, but still pretty cute, wouldn't you agree?"

"No argument there," said Priscilla.

Adaline smiled. "Too bad he's not sticking around; otherwise I might make a play for him."

Priscilla nodded. "I hear you there."

"Well," said Adaline, "at least he'll be here for a little while. We can definitely use all the help we can get for what's coming our way."

"Yeah," said Priscilla softly, "The forces of the Earth Alliance and ZAFT might not be as large as they were in the last war, but… well, they still outnumber us by a ridiculous degree. We're in for an uphill fight, no doubt there."

Adaline nodded. "You'd think that after the last war the nations of this world wouldn't be so eager to plunge right into another one. It's hard to believe that the Atlantic Federation hates us that much."

Priscilla sighed. "I wonder how many people in their general population share the same views as Blue Cosmos. It's not fun thinking that there could be millions of people out there who want you dead just because of how you were born."

"No kidding," said Adaline, "What really bugs me is how these assholes managed to hold onto power after the war. How the hell did they not get voted out of office after the shit they tried to pull at Jachin Due?"

Priscilla shook her head. "You have to remember that the Atlantic Federation is really a pseudo-democracy at this point. With the way their system's set up, the plutocrats who buy into the agenda of Blue Cosmos pull most of the strings now. An opposition party still exists, but its best candidates for office have nasty habits of suffering fatal car crashes… at least when the rulers are feeling subtle, anyway."

Adaline chuckled ruefully. "So fear rules the day the North America… not all that different from when Zala ran the PLANTs, really."

Priscilla nodded. "Another problem is that the real power players in the Atlantic Federation are good at covering their tracks. If they were truly exposed for the monsters that they are I bet the majority of the population would be furious and try to oust them, but they don't leave a whole lot of evidence lying around. The independent press has been more or less gutted, and anyone within the government that speaks out is labeled a traitor and has to go into exile."

"Toe the party line or be hunted for the rest of your life," said Adaline grimly, "Makes you really feel bad for the _Archangel _crew, doesn't it?"

"They were set up to die at Alaska," Priscilla replied, "They had more reason than most to leave their country behind."

"No kidding," said Adaline, "The Atlantic Federation, ZAFT… both just viewed soldiers as disposable pawns in the last war. It'll probably be the same for this one, too."

Priscilla nodded. "It will. That's why Terminal has to show that there's another option. We gained so many defectors from both sides in the last war that we were able to build up our own fleet. If we can demonstrate our commitment to ending this war by defending people regardless of race and show that we value soldiers as more than merely expendable assets, we can grow our ranks and openly challenge both the Earth Alliance and ZAFT. The Atlantic Federation is trying to dominate the narrative; we have to push back."

Adaline smiled. "You're starting to sound like Lacus, you know that?"

Priscilla couldn't help but blush. "You think so?"

"A little bit," said Adaline, "I know that she's big on challenging the narratives of the major powers and trying to get our message out there. We've had to lay low to avoid causing problems for Orb, but if fighting starts up again then we can act more openly. Depending on how things play out, we might actually have a chance to do more than just face off against the Alliance and ZAFT on the battlefield; we could shake things up internally if we can expose more people to our ideals and give them the courage to act."

Priscilla smiled. "Well, if Lacus wants to do that, I wish her luck. That's outside of my expertise, though."

Adaline smirked. "I hear you there. Blowing stuff up is what we're good at. Why not stick with it for a while longer?"

Priscilla shrugged. "We might as well. We'll be doing plenty of it real soon."

_Sooner than I'd like_, she silently added, _We knew that there was a chance this peace could end, but none of us imagined that it would be so soon. It's too late for us to change that, though. All we can do now is make the ones who shatter this peace regret that they did so. One way or another, they're going to answer to us for what they've done._

….

A confident smile on his face, Quatre moved his black rook forward. "Checkmate."

Leaning forward to carefully study the board, Lan's eyes widened when she saw that he indeed had her beat. "Son of a bitch… that's the third time in a row! I thought you said that you would take it easy on me after the last round!"

Quatre laughed. "I _did _take it easy on you! You lasted much longer this time than you did the last round, didn't you?"

Lan sighed as she flicked her white king onto its side. "I guess so. Damn it, I was really hoping for a win!"

"Well, you did tell me that you didn't want a freebie," Quatre replied, "You said that you wanted to work for it, so I'm trying to oblige."

Lan smiled. "I know. I guess strategy games really aren't my thing."

"For what it's worth," said Quatre, "you're definitely getting better. I've just been playing this for longer than you. So, do you want to go another round?"

Lan leaned back and shook her head. "I'll pass. Getting my butt kicked three times in a row's enough for one day."

Quatre nodded. "If you insist."

He started picking up the chess pieces and putting them back in the box. Despite her defeats Lan still couldn't help but smile as she watched her foe clean up; Quatre was just too cute to stay mad at.

"So," said Lan, "how'd you get so good at this?"

"My father was the one who introduced me to the game," he replied, "He said he wanted me to learn to appreciate the need for planning ahead, and this was his way to do it."

"And you stuck with it?" asked Lan, raising an eyebrow, "I thought you and your old man didn't really see eye to eye."

Quatre shook his head. "We had our differences, but I didn't fight him on every little thing. I happen to like the game, and I picked it up pretty quickly."

Lan smirked. "I bet. You're not just a rich boy with a cute face, after all."

She had the satisfaction of seeing him blush slightly. "Thanks."

_I never get tired of seeing that look on his face_, she thought, more than a little amused, _and it's so easy to get him to show it._

"Want to grab a drink?" he asked, "I know it's still a little early, but I'm up for one if you are."

Lan smiled. "Sounds like I'm rubbing off on you. Okay then, let's go."

Setting the game aside, the two of them went downstairs to the kitchen. Lan went straight for the wine and proceeded to pour two glasses.

"Anything you want to toast?" asked Lan.

Quatre nodded and smiled as he raised his glass. "To a good game."

Lan chuckled as she tapped her glass against his. "Yeah, for _you_, maybe."

They each took a sip before leaning against the counter next to each other. Gently grabbing his hand, Lan leaned over and kissed him on the cheek as she simply enjoyed his company.

_This is probably the last chance we'll get for a while to do something like this_, she thought, _Man, where did the time go?_

Neither of them wanted to openly admit what they already knew; by the time tonight was over, the world would be at war again. After two years of peace, how did one dive back into another global conflict? They had already done all that they reasonably could to prepare, and Lan simply wanted now to make as much of the time she had left with Quatre before the two of them jumped into the coming conflagration.

"So," she said, "how do you think it's going to play out? Up in orbit when the fireworks start, I mean."

Quatre closed his eyes as he took a sip of his wine. "That's hard to say. Bristow and Waltfeld seem confident that ZAFT's developed a defense against ZAFT's nukes. It would certainly make military sense for them to invest in one, but we have no idea as to how effective it really is. If it works, then I imagine the action up in space will become a stalemate since the Earth forces' offensive will have been blunted. Otherwise… well, those 'fireworks' that you mentioned will be large enough to spot from down here, I imagine."

Lan shuddered. "Talk about a buzz kill. I wish I hadn't brought it up."

Quatre shook his head. "It's something we have to consider. There's no sense in hiding from it."

Lan nodded. "Right. So, what's your money on? Countermeasure or the PLANTs getting wiped out?"

There was a thoughtful silence for a moment before he replied. "Countermeasure. Durandal strikes me as the type to give serious thought to something like that. I don't know for sure if two years would be enough time for his administration to develop an effective one, but my money's on ZAFT having something up its sleeves."

Lan sighed. "Either way, I suppose it doesn't affect us very much. Our first action in this war's going to be down on the surface. For us it really all depends on whether or not the Alliance just goes after Carpentaria or if they decide to attack Orb as well."

"I know," said Quatre, "From everything we've learned so far, it sounds like the Atlantic Federation is well on its way to subverting the Orb Union's leadership thanks to the Seirans. Depending on how far their influence reaches, it's entirely possible that the Earth Alliance will see Orb as more or less on their side and simply move on towards Carpentaria."

Lan scowled. "Sons of bitches… I _really _want to kill those bastards."

"I doubt you're alone there," said Quatre, "but we can't just take them out without being able to prove their corruption to those that Cagalli would still have to work with in her government. Whether we like it or not, we can't go after them just yet."

Lan nodded. "I know. What about the _Minerva_? That ship's still here, after all. Won't the Alliance raise a stink over that?"

"I imagine so," Quatre replied, "and if the Seirans really are trying to get on the good side of the Atlantic Federation, then they'll probably find a way to sell out the _Minerva _to them. It's the most advanced ship in ZAFT's fleet, so the Earth Alliance would see it as quite the prize."

Lan sighed. "After the last war, I'm not exactly ZAFT's biggest fan, but still… from what you and the other Gundam pilots have said it sounds like the crew of that ship are good people. I don't like the thought of the Seirans handing them over to the Earth Alliance on a silver platter."

Quatre shook his head. "Nor do I. If there's a way for us to help them then I think we should. I doubt Cagalli would approve of any action against them after what they did up in orbit, but there's always the chance that someone could go behind her back. We'll just have to watch carefully and try to give them enough of a warning so they'll have a chance to make a break for it."

"I hope we don't end up having to fight them later on," said Lan, "That'd probably be awkward for you guys after helping them out up in orbit."

Quatre shrugged. "If it happens, we'll deal with that when the time comes. I'll do what I have to, and I'm sure that Heero and the others feel the same way."

"What about Wufei?" asked Lan, "He stuck with the _Minerva _instead of coming here with you guys, right? Do you think that he'd be on your side if you had to fight against that ship?"

Quatre sighed. "Wufei's always done things his own way. To be honest, he's more of a wild card than any other Gundam pilot. I think I've got an idea as to why he stuck with the _Minerva _after the orbital battle, but it's hard to say for sure… and it's hard to tell if that's enough of a reason for him to stick with that ship's crew if we end up having to fight against them."

Lan smirked. "The wild card of the wild cards, eh? That's saying something. When Heero first showed up in our world, the biggest challenge was figuring out what he'd do next; he really didn't make it easy to predict his moves."

Quatre chuckled. "Well, that's what us Gundam pilots do best; we keep everyone else on their toes."

Lan smiled as she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "Well, you won't hear me complaining about that. I may not be looking forward to a new war, but I'm not gonna lie; I can't _wait _to see what you and your friends are capable of when you take on the world."

Quatre smiled in return. "I'll try not to disappoint, then."

Lan raised her glass. "Here's to knocking our enemies flat on their asses!"

Quatre laughed as he tapped his glass with hers. "I'll drink to that."

….

Down in the underground hangar, Duo looked up at the fearsome demon that was Deathscythe Omega and smiled. "It doesn't matter what world we're in, old buddy; it looks like I'll be the God of Death for some time to come."

"There aren't many people out there who would embrace that title so casually," said the voice of an old friend from behind him.

Duo chuckled as Trowa came up next to him. "What can I say? I like the ring it has. Besides, black is the color of death, and my buddy and I wear it so well."

Trowa smirked. "Hard to argue with that."

"You know," said Duo, "I was a little skeptical about the staff here working on my Gundam, even if it was just routine maintenance, but I gotta say, they've done pretty well. About as good as Howard's crew, I think. How's Heavyarms Arsenal?"

"Quite well," Trowa replied, "I agree with your assessment of the staff; Engineer Simmons tapped the right people to work here. She's quite talented in her own right, too."

Duo grinned. "No kidding. I bet her and Howard would really hit it off. The old man's gonna kick himself when I tell him what he missed out on!"

Trowa shrugged. "Maybe, but I bet he'd be fine with not getting involved in another war like we're about to be. This wasn't our original mission, after all."

Duo raised an eyebrow. "Having second thoughts?"

Trowa shook his head. "No, just trying to keep things in perspective. I agree that helping this world survive the coming conflagration is the right thing to do. We just can't allow ourselves to lose sight of where we're from and where we belong. Heero found a new home for himself here, and I believe he's found a sense of belonging here that he could never find in our old world. However, it's not the same for the rest of us. We have people and obligations waiting for us back in our world."

Duo nodded and smiled. "I know. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten. After all, I've got a wife waiting for me when this is all over… not to mention Duo Jr.!"

Trowa chuckled. "Do you really think that Hilde's going to go along with that name if you two have a boy?"

"She will if I never shut up about it!" said Duo with a grin, "She'll surrender out of sheer frustration."

"Don't underestimate her," said Trowa, "She can hold her ground pretty well when she want to."

Duo laughed. "Believe me; I know that better than anyone!"

"Good," said Trowa, "So you'd better have some backup names ready when she shoots you down for good."

Duo folded his arms. "Hey! Have a little faith, man!"

Trowa shrugged. "We'll see."

Duo rolled his eyes. "Like _you_ would know anything about this. I haven't exactly seen you make a play for a girl. Hell, even Quatre managed to hook up with someone! Sure, that one's temporary, but it's still better than your track record."

"I haven't had the opportunity for romance," Trowa replied, "and I'm not actively seeking it out."

"Oh, come on, dude!" said Duo, "What's wrong with you? You're not just a Gundam pilot; you're an acrobat in the circus and the guy Catherine throws knives at! You can't tell me that you haven't had a few girls send you some signals."

"If they have," Trowa replied, "I haven't noticed."

Duo shook his head. "Of course not. I really should expect that from you; sometimes you're as dense as Heero."

"It's not a matter of awareness," said Trowa, "It's just not something I've found myself interested in yet."

Duo grinned. "Well, maybe this world will fix that. We're going to be here for a while, after all, and it's about to get pretty noisy; I bet in the middle of all the fireworks we can find a girl who'll be up for a wartime fling with you!"

Trowa smirked. "Are you making that your mission?"

"I might have to at this rate," Duo shot back as he punched his friend on the shoulder, "Seriously, Trowa; you need to get laid!"

"And you think a world at war's the time and place for that?" asked Trowa dryly.

"Why not?" Duo replied, "There're plenty of chicks out there who'll go for that. You just gotta find one of them!"

"That kind of 'chick' doesn't strike me as my type," said Trowa.

Duo raised an eyebrow. "So you _do _have a type, then? Care to elaborate, buddy?"

"Not to you," Trowa quipped.

Duo chuckled. "That figures. Well, at least it's a start."

"A 'start' would imply that it can go somewhere," said Trowa, "I highly doubt that'll be happening while we're in this world, so don't get your hopes up."

Duo shook his head. "Come on, man, don't be like that! You gotta keep an open mind about this sort of thing. After all, you never know when a good girl's gonna pop up. You have to be flexible and go with the flow!"

Trowa rolled his eyes. "For the sake of argument, let's say that I _did _find a girl in this world that I might like. That doesn't change the fact that we're not sticking around here. Any sort of dalliance will inevitably have to end. I'd rather avoid causing undue distress for a woman, which is further incentive for me to avoid the scenario you want me to pursue."

"It's not 'undue distress' if the girl knows what she's getting into!" Duo countered, "If she knows it's just a temporary thing from the get-go then it'll be totally fine!"

Trowa folded his arms. "And how am I supposed to tell this hypothetical woman that it's strictly temporary? I thought we weren't supposed to be advertising the fact that we're not from this world."

"Well," said Duo, "if it's one who's part of this organization, then that keeps things simple. There're a few cuties who work on the maintenance staff down here, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few more single ladies were on the _Archangel _or the _Dominion_. I bet any of them would be up for a roll in the hay with a Gundam pilot! After all, thanks to Heero we've already got a bit of a reputation with this crowd. You might as well take advantage of it!"

Trowa shook his head. "I'd prefer not to mix business with pleasure. We need to have a good working relationship with Terminal while we're here, and I'd rather avoid causing any unnecessary complications."

Duo sighed. "You're just not going to make this easy, are you? I'm trying to help you hook up here! You could at least throw me a bone, buddy!"

"You might find that sort of thing appealing," said Trowa, "I don't."

"Is that really _you _talking," said Trowa, "or would that be Catherine's opinion? Come on, Trowa; I know she's been good to you, but you can't just go along with whatever she might want you to do."

"If I did that," Trowa shot back, "I wouldn't be here right now. Catherine wasn't exactly in favor of our expedition, after all."

Duo nodded. "True, but you know what I mean. She's way too protective of you, man! You gotta spread your wings and fly sooner or later."

"I'm more than capable of asserting myself," Trowa countered, "I just don't see the point in giving into my impulses without an eye for the consequences. I would think that you could understand that, seeing as how you're the only married Gundam pilot among us. I doubt that Hilde would agree with the advice you've been giving."

Duo grinned. "Well, this isn't about me and her. This is about you. If you're not going to take a chance and live life to the fullest while we're out here, then when will you?"

"At a time and place that suits me, and not you," Trowa replied as he turned and headed off towards his Gundam, "Later, Duo."

Duo smirked as he watched his friend leave. "Later, buddy. Don't go thinking that I've given up on you, though. I don't care if it's during a world war; I'm going to find you chick that you can have some fun with whether you like it or not!"

….

"Thirsty?" said Murrue as she put her hand on Heero's shoulder.

He turned around in his chair and nodded as he accepted the water bottle she passed to him. "Thanks. I guess I lost track of time for a little while there."

The two of them were upstairs in the spacious room that they shared at Terminal's estate. It was one of the most luxurious set of accommodations Heero had ever experienced, and one of the things he appreciated about the room was the workstation that had been set up for him and Murrue. It had a direct link to the data analysis room located in the bunker complex, so any information stored down there could be securely forwarded up here for ease of viewing. This was what Heero was taking advantage of now, and in fact he had been so focused on the intelligence files on the screen that he'd barely been aware of his lover entering the room.

Murrue smiled as she sat down on the edge of the desk. "I'll say. You've been staring at the screen there for a couple hours now. It's almost time for dinner. My mother came over to cook with Akila tonight, so you'd better not plan on being late."

Heero couldn't help but chuckle. "And incur your mother's wrath? I'd rather go another round with the Galm Team than upset her. Don't worry; I have no intention of being late for dinner."

Murrue leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. "Good. She really does enjoy cooking for us, so I'd hate for you to miss out on it."

Heero nodded. "So would I. She's quite talented."

Murrue smirked. "She is, but flattery won't save you if you're late. She won't care what you've been reading up here, either."

"Really?" he replied, "She wouldn't care that I've been studying the enemies that we could end up fighting against? I'd think that she would appreciate that I'm doing that so I can help keep you and your ship safe."

"Is that what Eric sent you?" asked Murrue as she leaned closer to get a better look at the screen, "I thought you were going through the appropriations and construction figures that he showed us earlier."

Heero shook his head. "No. This is actually data that we got from his informants in ZAFT's reconnaissance forces. They're really our best source of intelligence on Earth Alliance fleet buildups and movement since we lack similar contacts within their organization."

"I see," said Murrue, her eyes narrowing, "Is this the armada they're going to launch against L5?"

Heero nodded. "I know we won't be engaging them directly, but depending on how the battle for the PLANTs goes we could end up facing off against part of this force somewhere down the line, so I wanted to see what fleet units were attached to it."

"Find anything interesting?" asked Murrue.

"A few items, actually," said Heero as he turned back to his laptop, "The fleet's composition is pretty mixed; there are quite a few veteran units assigned to it. A lot of them are survivors from the last battle at Jachin Due. There are still plenty of warships and mobile suit squadrons that have raw recruits for crews and pilots, but the armada does have an experienced core to provide leadership and backbone when the fighting starts."

"ZAFT might have a problem there," said Murrue grimly, "I'm sure they've got plenty of experienced soldiers acting with their home defense battle groups, but from what Eric's reported they've also seen a major influx of new recruits. The force out at Armory One was an example of that. It's hard to know how they'll hold up under heavy assault, and ZAFT's going to need a disciplined force if they want to have a chance to deploy their countermeasure against the Alliance's nukes."

Heero nodded. "Agreed. ZAFT can't count on technological superiority alone to win the day, either; the Earth forces have made a great deal of progress with mobile suit development over the past two years. Both sides can field units that are capable of assuming a variety of combat roles; we can blame Kira's old Strike unit for inspiring that."

Murrue sighed. "Imitation is the highest form of flattery after all. The mass production units may not have Phase Shift Armor, but in the hands of experienced pilots they can still be dangerous. It's going to get ugly real quickly once the Alliance crosses the Zero Line."

"No argument there," Heero replied, "I found another interesting bit of information in here, too; ZAFT was finally able to identify the flagship of the Earth Alliance armada. Turns out it's the _Victory_."

Murrue's eyes widened. "You mean it's operational now? I thought it was still undergoing trial cruises!"

"So did I," said Heero, "It looks like they commissioned it ahead of schedule. I guess the higher ups really wanted it to take part in the opening attack of the war."

His fingers danced across the keyboard, and a new image quickly dominated the screen. At first glance, the ship in question bore a striking similarity to the older model _Agamemnon_-class carrier that still held such a prominent role in the Earth Alliance space forces. The hull design mirrored the rounded-triangle frame used by the _Agamemnon_-class, and it also shared the upraised bridge and stern extended engine housing as well. However, there were key distinctions, the most important being the size; the _Victory _was three times the length of its predecessor. It also had a heavier armament, which consisted of six topside Gottfried Mk. 71 225cm High-energy Dual Beam Cannons, with two more of the weapons mounted on the ship's belly. This was still a light main battery for a warship of its size, which made it clear that this new ship's primary role was not direct engagement but to act as a fleet carrier. The antiaircraft fit was heavier than that of the _Agamemnon_-class carrier as well, consisting of 38 Vulcan Guns for rapid fire close defense and two batteries of ten light anti-air missile launchers each, which were arrayed in rows flanking the bridge. For deploying its mobile suits the carrier employed six linear catapults. Four of them were towards the bow, set up with two catapults topside and two underneath, while further back there was one on each side at the widest point of the hull.

The _Victory _was the namesake ship of the Atlantic Federation's new _Victory_-class heavy fleet carrier. It was meant as an answer to ZAFT's monumental _Gondwana_, but while the _Victory _was smaller and deficient to its Coordinator counterpart in sheer size, armament, armor, and mobile suit capacity it did have a key advantage over the pride of the PLANTs' armed forces; it was easier to construct. The _Victory _was the first ship of her class to come online, but from news reports Heero knew that the Atlantic Federation already had at least one sister ship for her undergoing final fitting at the L2 shipyards, and a third was not too far behind. That was the price ZAFT paid for going for qualitative overmatch with its heavy capital ships; they could not be produced at the same rate as their Earth Alliance counterparts, and that was without factoring in the treaty restrictions.

"If they've commissioned the _Victory _early," said Murrue, "then the Earth Alliance is redoubling the weight that they're putting into this opening assault. They really want a first round knockout this time."

Heero nodded. "If they're going to deploy nukes, then it'd be reasonable to assume that a fair amount of them will be held on that ship. They'll fix launchers and warheads to its mobile suits prior to the engagement, and then once both fleets have mixed it up and opened gaps in the defenses they'll deploy for their strike."

"Do we know who's commanding the fleet?" asked Murrue.

Heero shook his head. "No, but for a strike this big I'd assume that the Atlantic Federation has a member of its High Command heading up the assault."

"That would make sense," said Murrue, "Are there any signs of our old friends from the orbital fight?"

"Not that I can tell," Heero replied, "but since Natarle destroyed their battleship they now lack a distinctive vessel. Their surviving mobile suits might be unique, but they could have those stored away within any vessel in the fleet. We won't know if any of them have been assigned to the armada until the fireworks start. Well, all except for Samuel Rodrigues; thanks to my recon flight we know that he's at the Pearl Harbor naval base along with the rest of Desperado's heavy hitters. Actually, with the Pacific Fleet on the move he could be with them now. Either way, he's not up in space."

"Small favors," said Murrue, "If Rodrigues was skilled enough to survive two fights with Wufei then ZAFT should be grateful that he won't be part of the force attacking their homeland."

"No argument there," said Heero, "but the pilot with the gun-drone machine could be operating with the armada, and he could cause some problems for the defenders."

"ZAFT should have data on that mobile suit from the previous encounters," Murrue countered, "They have to have forwarded it to their front line commanders so they can be prepared for a possible engagement."

"It's one thing to have data on an enemy's capabilities," said Heero, "It's another to actually face off against them. A few of ZAFT's pilots show promise, but as things stand right now I don't think Durandal's regime has anyone capable of taking that unit's pilot on in single combat. The last war pretty much cleaned out their top pilots; they either defected or were taken down by us."

"They do have Athrun back with them now," said Murrue, "Sure, they had a warrant for treason on his head, but from what you've told me so far Durandal doesn't sound like the type to act on that if he can avoid it. I'm betting that he's already found a use for Athrun's skills as a pilot. At the very least he has to recognize that his armed forces only benefit by allowing Athrun to rejoin their front line units."

Heero shook his head. "Athrun's good, but his ability to fight back against more powerful units will depend on the kind of mobile suit ZAFT lets him fly. If it's just a regular ZAKU or ZAKU Phantom then he might be able to fight a delaying action at best, but the gun-drone unit is nuclear powered; it completely outclasses conventional machines, and its pilot is top tier. If Athrun doesn't have a more advanced unit in the event that he clashes with that machine, then his victory is in doubt."

"Do you think he knows that?" asked Murrue.

Heero nodded. "Athrun might've been overestimating himself when he decided to return to the PLANTs to try to influence current events, but he's not a fool; he recognizes the limits of his combat capabilities. If he had a unit like the Justice then I would give him much better odds against the gun-drone mobile suit, but with a more conventional machine it'll be all he can do just to keep himself alive. Fortunately, he seems to have a knack for survival even under the worst circumstances. In that respect, he definitely qualifies as a Gundam pilot."

Murrue smiled. "High praise, coming from the best of the original five to hold that title."

Heero couldn't help but smirk. "Flattery? You know that doesn't work on me, Murrue."

She leaned down and kissed him. "I know, but I'm still allowed to try, aren't I?"

"You won't hear me complaining," Heero replied.

"Thought so," said Murrue before she became serious again, "So, did you find anything else in there?"

"Nothing of major importance," said Heero as he exited the file and shut down the monitor, "At this point our most immediate priority is confirming where the Pacific Fleet will strike, and the data here was focused on the orbital forces. They won't be in position to attack either Orb or Carpentaria in synch with the space forces' assault on L5, but soon they'll have to alter their heading and begin making their final approach, and that's when we'll know what their target is. That's the force that we have to be ready to fight."

Murrue nodded. "We _are _ready. I know that we're outnumbered, but that's never stopped us in the past. We're stronger now than we were two years ago, and regardless of what the Pacific Fleet's target is we won't be fighting alone. It won't be easy, but we can do this."

Her confidence was reassuring, and despite the gravity of the situation Heero could still feel a small smile sneak its way onto his face. "We've never been ones to take the easy road before; there's no reason why that should change now."

Murrue smiled as well. "If the Alliance hated fighting us in the last war, they're going to be enraged when they realize what it means to go up against you _and _the rest of the Gundam pilots. What their black ops forces experienced up in orbit was just a taste of what you're capable of."

"Don't go giving us all the credit," Heero replied, "After all, we're going to have you and your ship backing us up, and our enemy still hasn't seen all of what the new _Archangel_'s capable of."

"We did give them a good taste of her new power in the orbital battle," said Murrue, "but you're right; it's not the same ship that turned against them in the last war. She's a whole new beast, and she'll make them pay dearly for starting another war."

"I'd expect nothing less," said Heero.

He then saw her look out the window, the smile fading from her face. "We may be ready for a new conflict, but… we can't keep living like this, Heero. Going from one war to the next, with just a brief lull to rest and heal our wounds… this isn't the way people are meant to spend their lives."

Heero shook his head as he stood up. "It's not the way I want to spend my life, but… well, the concept of peace itself is still pretty new to me. Over the past two years you've given me a glimpse of what it means, and I'm grateful for that. However, the shadow of another global war was always there in the background. We knew that both sides would rebuild and rearm; we hadn't eliminated the root cause of the last conflict. We just forced a change in leadership. In light of that, the 'peace' that we brought to this world… I'm no expert, but I don't think that it was the genuine article."

Murrue sighed. "I wish you were wrong. I wanted so badly for you to experience the world that I knew before the Bloody Valentine War. I wanted you to understand and live the peace that your world denied you. I _still _want that, more than almost anything else in the world, but… I don't want it to have to be _us _that have to keep fighting for it. We've already done more than enough!"

"Murrue…" said Heero, his eyes widening slightly.

She turned towards him and put her hands on his shoulders. "Heero, I'll fight alongside you to bring peace to this world again, but I won't keep fighting forever. I want us to have a life beyond the battlefield. I want us to leave our warships and mobile suits behind one day, but I have to know that you're truly committed to reaching that day as well. I know that you want peace, but at the same time I also understand how much your Gundam means to you. It brought you to this world and has helped you save my life more times than I can count. I'm grateful for that, I truly am, but I don't want you to hold onto Wing Zero forever. Heero, when the day comes for us to finally leave the battlefield behind for good… I want you to destroy that machine. That's the only way that you'll truly be free from a life of combat. Wing Zero's power is a great gift, but it's also a curse; it's what binds you to the battlefield. I wish that I could be the one to free you from it, but I can't do that by myself; you have to play your part too. I'll continue to stand by your side and do all I can to help you, but I need a commitment from you as well. I need you to promise me that one day you _will _destroy Wing Zero."

Heero closed his eyes. What she was asking him to do was far from easy for him to accept. Yes, he had something of a reputation for self-detonating mobile suits, and in the final battle of his old war he had been willing to destroy Wing Zero and himself along with it if it meant saving the Earth from the falling ruins of the giant battleship _Libra_; only the timely intervention of Zechs Merquise had prevented him from going through with that course of action. Had destroying his Gundam been necessary during the Bloody Valentine War to save Murrue's life, Heero knew that he would've done it in a heartbeat.

This was different, though. He'd had this Gundam for over two years now, and while he wasn't normally the type to get sentimental about a mobile suit it was impossible to deny that there were some very real ties between himself and Wing Zero. It wasn't just another machine; it had brought him to the Cosmic Era and had given him the power to not only survive the hellish war this world had been engulfed in but also to defend his new friends and the woman he'd fallen in love with. In its upgraded form it gave him even more strength to pursue those same ends, and it was not a power that he could throw aside lightly.

However, he could not deny that Murrue's point was quite valid; as long as Wing Zero was in his possession, he would never truly be free from his life of combat. The power it gave him, the temptation to wield its strength, was too great, even if he would do so to defend the world and those closest to him. That power also served as a threat to the world, so much so that an entire clause of the Treaty of Junius Seven had been devoted to its removal. Terminal may have circumvented that clause by destroying a dummy before the eyes of the world, but Heero had to admit that the concerns underlying that portion of the treaty had some real validity to them. Wing Zero was both a guardian angel and a wrathful demon, and its very existence would continue to tie him to his identity as a Gundam pilot. As long as it was around, he would never truly be liberated from the call of the battlefield.

_I told Murrue that I wanted to experience life beyond combat_, he thought, _I wanted to convince her that I was ready for peace, especially one that I could enjoy with her. It's not enough for me to simply say that and fight for it, though. I should've realized that long ago. My actions have to prove that I'm ready to embrace peace not for my sake, but for hers as well… and there's only one way to do that. It's not time yet, but someday it will be._

"Heero?" said Murrue, cautiously putting her hand on his shoulder.

He opened his eyes and met her gaze. "Murrue… you're right. I hadn't considered things that way before, but your analysis is correct; as long as I hold onto Wing Zero, then I'm not truly committing myself to a new life with you in peace. Part of me would still belong to the battlefield, and that's the last thing I want."

Murrue smiled. "I thought as much. I've always believed you when you've told me that you wanted to find out what peace really means; that you want to move beyond a life of conflict. I want you to do that, but there's only so much that I can do to help you with that."

Heero nodded. "I know. You deserve a commitment that goes beyond just words after all you've done for me. I can't say for sure when the day will come; we are about to jump into another war, after all. However, I promise that one day I'll get rid of Wing Zero. When the time comes, I'll destroy it myself."

Murrue leaned in and kissed him. "I'm going to hold you to that."

Heero gave her a small smile in return. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Good," she replied, "If we're really going to build a life together beyond the battlefield, then I can't have that machine lingering behind you like a shadow. It may be part of your past and your present, but it doesn't belong in a future where you'll truly know peace."

"I agree," said Heero, "but before I do that, I want to make sure that the world will be safe for you and the others. I know that we can't make things perfect, but I think we can at least secure a lasting peace."

Murrue nodded. "I'm with you there. Whether I like it or not, we are going to need Wing Zero's power for the immediate future. However, we won't need it forever. Once we know that the threat has truly passed and the world is ready to move forward into a new era, it'll be time to wrap things up. The age of the Gundams has to end sometime, after all."

"I know," said Heero, "and I think the other pilots do too. However… we'll end it on our terms. They're our machines; we'll be the ones to bring their chapters to a close."

"I would expect nothing less," said Murrue, "and I'll be right there by your side when that day comes."

Heero smirked. "You'd better be. You've never seen a Gundam self-detonate; it's one hell of a fireworks show. I'd hate for you to miss it."

Murrue laughed. "And you would know that better than most, wouldn't you?"

Heero shrugged. "Maybe."

Murrue smiled again and nodded. "All right, then. It's a promise. One day Wing Zero's time will come to a close, and I'll be right there with you so we can send it off with a bang."

"Sounds good," said Heero, "I think it deserves that much, at least."

"I agree," Murrue replied, "It helped you make your mark on this world. I think the very least we can do is help it go out with style."

Heero nodded. "And... what comes after that?"

Murrue leaned forward and kissed him. "The future, Heero. _Our _future."

Heero gave her a small smile. "Roger that."

….

**Start "The Imperial March"**

Up in orbit, just across the demarcation between Alliance and ZAFT space known as the Zero Line, an armada the likes of which had not been seen in over two years was massed. At just over a thousand vessels strong, the combined fleets composed roughly thirty percent of the Earth Alliance's total fighting strength. Floating in the void like a vast group of sharks waiting for the start of a massive feeding frenzy, the armada held representatives of every ship class currently available to the Earth forces. _Drake_-class escort ships and _Typhoon_-class destroyers made up the outer screen, while just beyond them was the force's core of _Nelson_-class battleships and _Agamemnon_-class carriers. Mobile suits flitted about on their assigned patrol routes like flies amongst dragons, the blue fires of their thrusters creating the illusion of tiny comets. At the very heart of the armada was a vessel that dwarfed them all; the nine-hundred meter flagship _Victory_.

Standing on the bridge of the new heavy fleet carrier was Colonel Nazara. His arms folded, he looked out the viewport with a smile as he observed the massed warships. While this force paled in comparison to the armada that he had been part of two years ago in the final battle of the last war, it was still an imposing fleet, one that Phantom Pain's commander could not wait to see unleashed against the enemy.

_Your hour is almost at hand, L5_, he thought, imagining that he could see the hourglass colonies in the distance, _I wonder… how will you react when you see that your end is nigh, Durandal? Oh, what I would not give to see the look on your face when we unleash this armada's secret arsenal. There will be no Wing Zero to save you this time; the Pacific Fleet has the Demon Lord of Avalon pinned in Orb. There might've been a few hiccups before, but now events are back on track._

The scars beneath his mask throbbed at the thought of his personal nemesis. Not for the first time, he wondered if Wing Zero's pilot was aware of the fact that the first time they had met in combat was _not _at Armory One, but at Jachin Due. Did the greatest of all the thorns in his side realize that he was crossing swords with a phantom from the last war, or was Nazara an unknown rival to the Angel of Ruin? Would the living legend finally connect the dots the next time they encountered one another on the battlefield, or would he remain in the dark?

At this moment, it did not matter. All that was important was that the greatest threat to his plans was currently preoccupied. How long Heero Yuy would remain checked by the Pacific Fleet was impossible to say, but for now it was enough that Wing Zero would not be able to intervene in the opening battle of the new war. The stage was set for a grand clash of armadas, and this time there would be no pesky third parties to disrupt the brawl between the Earth Alliance and ZAFT.

"Magnificent…" he whispered.

"Colonel Nazara!" called the ship's communication's officer, "You have an incoming transmission, Priority One!"

_That will be Djibril_, he thought, more than a little irritated, _He does love to micromanage…_

"Very well," he said, "I'll take it in the private comm suite. If Admiral Wallace asks for me, tell him that I'm engaged with our mutual benefactor."

The comms officer nodded. "Understood, Colonel."

Turning away from the viewport, the Phantom Commander headed for the exit. It took him just a minute to enter the comm suite and lock it before activating the sophisticated holoprojector that occupied the center of the chamber. Nazara had to fight a grimace as the image of Lord Djibril appeared. The way he sat so arrogantly reminded Nazara of a king whose pride had long overtaken his intellect, and the Colonel could only take comfort in the knowledge that someday _he _would assume his rightful place as ruler of Djibril's domain.

_Sooner rather than later, of course_, he mused, _and if I have it my way, the transfer of power will not be a peaceful one…_

"Lord Djibril," he said, "I wondered when we would hear from you. The deadline set by President Copeland is still a few hours away."

Djibril smiled. "Of course it is… and you and I both know that we never intended to wait up until the last minute to kick off this show."

Despite his hatred of the man who dared believe he was in a position to command him, Nazara could not help but grin. "So it's finally time... at long last."

Djibril nodded. "Indeed. Is the armada ready?"

"It can launch at your command, my lord," said Nazara, for once using the title without biting back sarcasm.

Djibril nodded. "Good. Is Admiral Wallace on the bridge?"

Nazara shook his head. "No, he's in his quarters. No doubt dictating another page of his odious memoirs."

Djibril chuckled. "Well, he'll have quite the page to add to them when this battle is over. Summon him to the bridge; let's get this show on the road."

"And what of President Copeland?" said Nazara with a smirk, "He'll throw quite the fit when he realizes that we've crossed the Zero Line early."

Djibril waved his hand dismissively. "His thoughts on this matter are irrelevant. He can deal with the fallout however he sees fit; if nothing else, he's at least proven himself to be an adequate spin doctor."

"True enough," said Nazara, "Is there anything else, my lord?"

Djibril grinned. "No. March on the Coordinator homeland. Wipe them out. _Leave none alive_."

Nazara nodded, a cruel smile gracing his visage. "It will be done, my lord."

The hologram disappeared, and Nazara wasted no time in returning to the bridge.

"Contact the Admiral," he ordered the comms officer, "Tell him if his ass isn't on this bridge in five minutes I'm going to shoot him. And yes, quote me verbatim on that, if you would be so kind."

Not even waiting for a reply, he headed for his seat. It was right next to the Admiral's chair and was level with it, symbolizing that even though Nazara technically had the lower rank his authority was at the very least equal with that of the fleet's official commanding officer.

Much to his surprise, it only took the Admiral two minutes to make it to the bridge. Nazara didn't even both to spare the graying fleet officer a glance; his gaze remained focus on the grand armada just out the window.

"Colonel!" Admiral Gregory Wallace huffed, "Just who the hell do you think you are? The _Victory _is _my _ship; I will not allow an outsider to order me around on it!"

Nazara chuckled. "Spare me the melodrama and wounded pride, Admiral; we both know who's really calling the shots here. Let's not waste another moment with trivial theatrics."

The Admiral sat down next to the Colonel. "So, it really is time, then? So much for waiting for the official deadline."

"We're only going a few hours early," said Nazara, "It doesn't really make a difference, does it?"

"Not to our goal," the Admiral replied, "but global opinion…"

"Is irrelevant," Nazara swiftly finished for him, "By the time this war is over 'global opinion' will be whatever the Atlantic Federation says it is. This is the beginning of our march to glory, Admiral; let us not delay it a second longer than necessary."

Wallace nodded. "In that case, I shall address the fleet."

"Feel free," said Nazara, doing his best to suppress a grimace; the Admiral had a reputation for being a windbag, and the Colonel prayed that he would at least keep his remarks brief.

Wallace tapped a few keys on the pad built into the right arm of his chair, setting up a fleet-wide broadcast. "Soldiers of the Earth Alliance, this is your commanding officer, Admiral Wallace!"

"Here we go," Nazara muttered under his breath.

"For too long, we have allowed our enemies to rest in the comfort and security of L5," he continued, "They sit in luxury in their colonies while plotting to bring Armageddon to our precious world! The Break The World Incident was just the first attempt at wiping us out; they will try again and again until all that we hold dear has been destroyed! In order to defend our beautiful Earth, we must act swiftly and decisively to eliminate the threat at its source!"

_Not bad so far_, Nazara mused, _At least he's hitting all the right notes._

"Our enemies have already demonstrated their capacity for brutality," said the Admiral, "They preach about how enlightened they are, and yet they attack us with the savagery of beasts! Thus do they reveal their true nature, and in order to fight against them we must show the same brutality that they have. There can be no mercy for those who dare to threaten our sacred planet. Harden your hearts and strike with an iron fist, and we shall purge this menace once and for all! By the power vested in me by our President and military, I hereby order this armada to advance. Cross the Zero Line; the objective is L5! We will engage the enemy as soon as we have them in our sights!"

Wallace cleared his throat. "Carry on, soldiers. Do your duty, and do not let misguided thoughts of compassion and mercy infect your resolve. The war begins now, and it will not end until one side or the other is completely obliterated. Our enemies have already tried to send us down to hell; let us return the favor."

The Admiral cut off the address and sat down. Next to him, Nazara gave him half-mocking applause. The speech was actually shorter than he'd expected, and the Admiral certainly could've done worse.

He could feel a subtle vibration as the _Victory_'s powerful engines kicked into high gear. The entire armada was in motion now, and it would not stop until it had reached the PLANTs.

_Here I come, Durandal_, Nazara thought with a smile, _Please, sent everything you have against me. It will be my pleasure to carve through your ranks and strike at your beloved homeland. Say your prayers, Supreme Council Chairman…_

_ …because I'm about to send your entire species straight to hell._

**End "The Imperial March"**

….

Leaning back in the chair behind his office, Durandal nodded at the man on the screen before him. "I see. Are you sure she's there?"

Major Adam Langley, the raven-haired head of the surface Special Forces division based at Carpentaria, nodded. "Completely. Our infiltrators spotted her in town a few days ago. She was disguised, but it wasn't hard to tell who she was. Tailing her was difficult, but we did manage to confirm where she's staying."

"You've done well, Major," Durandal replied, "Can Case Black Rose still be enacted under these circumstances?"

"There will need to be some modifications to the operational parameters," said the Major, uncharacteristically nervous, "but it can be done. However… is this _really _necessary, Chairman?"

Durandal smiled. "I understand your reluctance, Major. After all, the role she played in the last war as a force for peace is undeniable. She is an icon, and one who has truly earned her status. However, her power lies beyond our control, and in the coming war I'm afraid that we cannot allow her such independence. She will not join us, so we must ensure that our adversaries will not get the chance to make use of her gifts. This is a dirty and unenviable task, Major, but all wars have their share of such missions."

Langley nodded grimly. "I understand. Shall I put a unit on standby?"

"Yes," said Durandal, his eyes narrowing, "but you are not to commence the operation until you get an explicit order from me. Staging for Case Black Rose may commence, but the operation does _not _have the green light until I say otherwise. Is that understood?"

"Of course, Chairman," said the Major.

Durandal nodded. "Very good. I will leave the necessary preparations to you. Secrecy is paramount, Major. If you determine that local forces have discovered your strike team before I give the order to commence the operation, you have my permission to abort."

"Thank you, Chairman," the Major replied.

"I won't take any more of your time, then," said Durandal, "Until next time, Major."

The Special Forces officer disappeared from the screen, leaving the Supreme Council Chairman a moment alone with his thoughts. He could certainly sympathize with the Major's reservations regarding Case Black Rose; only a psychopath would take pleasure in carrying out such an operation. There was a reason that assignments like these were known as black ops, after all; they were hardly noble endeavors. However, Durandal had accepted long ago that to achieve his ends he would have to engage in less than honorable means, and this was simply one of the most dishonorable of the lot. He would live with that private stain on his nobility and accept it as a price to be paid for the greater good.

_I've come too far to turn back now_, he thought grimly, _and I hardly deserve a clean conscience, given the methods I've employed thus far to advance my agenda._

He couldn't help but smile ruefully as he recalled his conversation with Heero Yuy in the _Minerva_'s officer's lounge. The young man's suspicions regarding the construction of Armory One and the plans for an entire colony city to eventually be established at L4 were right on the money; it _was _intended as a provocative gesture. He had baited the trap, and the Earth Alliance had gone for it hook, line and sinker. Of course, they had moved earlier than he'd anticipated, and were it not for the intervention of Heero Yuy and his four mysterious friends he imagined that he would quite likely have died in the attack on the colony. Lady Luck was a very fickle mistress indeed, but right now she seemed to be smiling upon his endeavors, or at least amused enough by them to let them play out for the time being.

The war that he knew his plans required was about to begin. It was a very odd thing, playing the role of a determined peacekeeper in public but privately preparing for a global conflict. At least he could take comfort in the knowledge that he had a very willing, if quite unwitting, partner in the Earth Alliance; their recent actions had considerably accelerated his agenda, and under other circumstances Durandal might be so bold as to actually thank them for their invaluable assistance. It was one of those amusing ironies of life; those who utterly hated Coordinators had unknowingly given their leader a chance to bring the world closer to unity under L5's banner.

He was snapped out of his musings by a chime coming from the console. Checking the monitor, he saw that it was Grand Admiral Brinkmann calling in.

"Grand Admiral," said Durandal as the head of ZAFT appeared on the monitor, "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

The veteran commander's face was grimmer than usual. "We've received a report from our scout forces; the Alliance armada has crossed the Zero Line."

Durandal's eyes narrowed; to his knowledge there were still a couple of hours before the deadline given by the Atlantic Federation President had given in his address to Congress. "Are you sure?"

Brinkmann nodded. "The report has been verified. They're coming, Chairman."

Durandal sighed, playing the role of reluctant leader to the hilt. "Then it's time, Grand Admiral. Put our forces on maximum alert. I will convene an emergency session of the Supreme Council immediately."

The Grand Admiral saluted. "Understood, Chairman."

The head of the armed forces disappeared from the monitor. After a moment of staring at the blank screen lost in thought, a triumphant smile slowly worked its way onto the Chairman's face.

"So it begins."

**Preview for next time!**

_The Earth Alliance force has crossed the Zero Line, triggering the start of the Second Bloody Valentine War. It doesn't take long for the armada to make contact with the outer defenses of the PLANTs, and a full-blown fleet brawl quickly erupts. While warships and mobile suits clash in the first major battle of the war, both sides prepare their trump cards. Those who lead the Earth Alliance armada place their faith in their nuclear stockpile, while ZAFT lays it all on the line with a prototype defensive device designed to avert another Bloody Valentine Tragedy. Next time, on "Destiny's Call", Episode Nine: Opening Match._

_Not by strength alone is victory achieved…_

**Author's Notes: **I'm glad I cut this one short. I know that you guys were excited for the mobile suit action to start up again, but by making the big battle at L5 the focus of a chapter instead of just a portion of one I'll be able to really do it justice. Thanks again for your patience, I promise that it will be rewarded!

Oh, and for those of you who think that the _Victory _is pretty much a Star Destroyer; you're right! Granted, it's a much weaker one, but the design intent is there all the same.

Hope you liked the chapter! Please review!


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Notes: ** All right, another chapter done! I'm glad I split this one off from the previous one, I really wanted to start the new war off with a bang and I was able to make that the center of attention.

Song list, in order of appearance: "The Trooper" by Iron Maiden, "The Round Table" from Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War, "Rules of Nature" from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, and "Rush" from Ace Combat: Assault Horizon.

I don't own Gundam Wing, Gundam SEED, or the Metal Gear franchise. I'm doing this for fun, nothing more.

Enjoy!

**Episode Nine: Opening Match**

**October 21****st****, C.E. 73**

Aboard the _Laurasia_-class frigate _Naomi Hunter_, Boris Vyacheslavovich Popov scowled as he watched the newsfeed on the main monitor. A First Generation Coordinator in his late thirties, he was a well-built man with close cut dark brown hair, brown eyes, and a thick yet well trimmed mustache. Formerly a Commander from ZAFT's space forces with more than his share of combat experience under his belt, he'd gone from formal military to independent security contractor after the Bloody Valentine War had come to a close.

The company he'd founded, Maverick Security Consulting, had quickly grown to become the premier PMC operating out of L5. ZAFT's downsizing after the war was a windfall for his fledgling company, and practically overnight his enterprise had swelled with recruits and hardware, including advanced weaponry that he'd been able to purchase for next to nothing. The _Naomi Hunter _was the crown jewel of Maverick's assets, and even though the _Laurasia_-class was now considered outdated the vessel was still nothing to sneeze at. It retained all of its wartime armament, and the relatively lax regulations concerning PMCs meant that Boris had been able to upgrade the ship's capabilities. Two more 58mm CIWS had been added, both mounted on the upper hull flanking the bridge, while batteries of six anti-air missile launchers apiece had been installed on the far sides towards the back of the ship. The original sensors had been torn out and replaced with the more advanced versions that were employed on the _Nazca_-class destroyers. The frigate's engines had been overhauled as well, and while the ship's overall speed still wasn't quite up there with the more modern warships in ZAFT's fleet it was still a decent improvement over what the class had previously been capable of.

As the head of the company, one might think that a man such as Boris should've been in an office rather than a warship. That certainly might've been the more responsible way to go about his role, but Boris wasn't a fan of the boardroom, to put it mildly. Maverick did maintain an office in Aprillius One, but that mostly served as a place to hold meetings with clients and to handle minor administrative functions. In his eyes he could manage his company just as well from a warship as he could from an executive's office, and in this capacity he could still put his combat experience to good use.

In setting up his company, he'd taken care to emulate some of ZAFT's structure while incorporating other schemes and ideas from fellow emerging PMCs. The most obvious homage to his former military was the uniform design he'd commissioned for the crew of the _Naomi Hunter_. It was basically identical to the ZAFT uniform design, but the base color was one not used by the Coordinator military; silver. All crew members, regardless of their rank, wore the same color uniform. Distinctions in command and role were denoted by a patch on the upper left torso. To signal his role as both the ship's commander and the head of the company, Boris wore a patch that had a dark grey base, which was emblazoned with a white horse overlaid with a blue lightning bolt, while below that were three letters in black bold font: **MSC**, the abbreviated form of the company's full name.

He shook his head as he continued to watch the press conference. "_Bozhe moi_… so it's war again, huh? Courtney, any updates from our liaison?"

A busty young woman in her early twenties, with her blonde hair tied in a bun and an energetic gleam in her green eyes that was only sharpened by her glasses, Courtney Collins was in charge of supervising communications between the frigate, its mobile suits, and outside contacts in ZAFT and the civilian PLANT administration. Oddly enough, she'd actually earned a Masters in Business Administration shortly before joining up with Maverick. When Boris had asked her why she'd wanted to join a PMC rather than go into finance and set herself up for life, she had responded that she had considered that but in the aftermath of the war she wanted to do some good in the world. Maverick had been quite a young company back then, but even in its early days Boris had worked hard to make sure his enterprise conducted itself according to high ethical standards, and that had been attractive to Courtney. Now, here she was on his bridge, and her skills made her a valuable part of the crew.

She glanced back at him and nodded. "We just got a message from our coordinating officer back at Headquarters. They want us to redeploy. I'm sending you the coordinates now."

Checking the small monitor mounted on the arm of his chair, Boris nodded when he saw the data flash on the screen. Their new post was on Line One, formerly known as the Jachin Due Line until ZAFT's big reorganization after the war. It would place them directly in the path of the oncoming Earth Alliance armada, and Boris knew that they would be in for some heavy fighting.

"No time to waste, then," he said, "Helm, get us over there. Courtney, contact the home office and give them a status update."

"Understood, sir," she replied.

Boris then glanced over his shoulder at a dark-skinned man working a console behind him. "How long will it take to get a briefing set up for our pilots, Kevin?"

A fellow classmate of Courtney back during their university days, the dreadlocked Kevin Washington was something of a jack of all trades for Maverick. Not only was he the right hand man of Boris, but he was also in charge of handling pre-mission briefings, negotiations with new or current clients, weapons procurement, Human Resource management, accounting and business development. It was a lot of responsibility for a man who was just in his early twenties, but Kevin rarely complained about the workload.

"That depends," he replied, "Do we have accurate intel on what the enemy's sending our way?"

"Courtney?" said Boris.

"Headquarters sent over some files along with those coordinates," she replied, "They should have everything we'll need. I'll send them to Kevin now."

A few seconds later Boris saw Kevin nod as his screen flashed. "Got 'em. I'll review them as fast as I can and get back to you, boss."

"The sooner the better," said Boris, "We need our pilots brought up to speed before the enemy arrives."

"I hear you," said Kevin, already intently studying the new information.

"Courtney," said Boris, "Send those files to me as well. I'd like to look over them before we engage the enemy."

"Of course, sir," said Courtney, "They're coming over now."

They showed up a few seconds later on his personal monitor, and his eyes narrowed as he studied their contents. It was easy to see why ZAFT was marshalling so many ships to repel the coming assault; the armada massed by the Earth Alliance was the largest to have been deployed by either superpower since the Bloody Valentine War.

His mind flashed back to the Second Battle of Jachin Due. Back then he had been commanding a flotilla of frigates, not just a single ship like he was today. The sheer brutality of that battle was so fresh in his mind it was as if it had just happened yesterday instead of two years ago. He could recall the casualties with perfect clarity; eighty percent of his flotilla had been wiped out in that ferocious brawl. The stress and trauma that came with seeing so many people under his command perish had been one of the reasons why Boris had moved to the private sector after the war; having responsibility for that many lives and seeing them snuffed out so ruthlessly wasn't an experience he wanted to repeat. With Maverick's space combat assets just being a single warship and its six mobile suits, he felt like he was much more capable of shepherding the young men and women who had joined his company, although he was well aware that it was impossible to guarantee their safety in this line of work.

He sighed as he shut off the news feed. There was no point in further viewing when it was just going to frustrate him further. Despite all that had happened in the last war, mankind had chosen to ignore the lessons that should've come with its close brush with Armageddon. Peace was officially over.

No shots had been fired as of yet, but the Second Bloody Valentine War was well underway.

….

"Should we keep him in school?" asked his wife, "I've hear a lot of other parents talk about pulling their kids out."

Leaning back in his chair as he spoke to the love of his life over the video feed, Jack shook his head. "There's no point in that. Where're they going to go? Even if they pull their kids out of school, they'll still be in the PLANTs. It's not like moving to another colony's going to change the fact that we've all got targets painted on our backs. I say keep John enrolled. He's made some good friends there; it'd be a shame for him to lose touch with them just because we got spooked."

The star pilot and ground operative of Maverick Security Consulting, Jack certainly stood out in a crowd. His light blond hair flowed down almost to his chin, and along with his complexion had contributed to one of his many monikers; White Devil. His blue eyes usually had an easy-going look to them, but when the action started they could become sharper than daggers and colder than the winds of Siberia. He was tall and well built, which was to be expected when one considered that he'd been fighting in one form or another for most of his life. Born a Coordinator thanks to the machinations of a petty warlord and a twisted doctor for the sole purpose of being a soldier, he'd cut his teeth in one of the many ethnic conflicts raging down in Africa as a young boy before being brought to the PLANTs by humanitarian aid workers. From such bloodstained beginnings it was only natural that he would've been drawn to ZAFT, but even though the battlefield called to him he had been saved from utterly drowning in it by the woman he was speaking to now.

_I've really come up in the world_, he mused, _From child soldier to PMC fighter… and a family man, to boot. That's one hell of a journey._

It was a journey that wasn't anywhere close to done, at least not if he had anything to say about it. He had a steady career, a wife, and a son, and he wasn't about to let the Earth Alliance take that away from him. If he had to fight to keep them safe, then he was fine with that… and the enemy would find out the hard way how he'd earned the nickname 'Jack The Ripper.'

On the screen, Rosemary smiled, her relief clearly visible in her warm brown eyes. "I think you're right. I'll keep him enrolled. Hopefully the other parents will make the same call; I don't want him to go to school all alone."

"Some of them will probably pull their kids out regardless," said Jack, "but there should be plenty that stay on. Like I said; where are they going to go?"

"Right," she replied, "I just hope he's not too worried about all of this. I've been trying to keep him from following the news, but you know how kids are these days."

Jack smirked. "Yup; way too tech savvy. I swear, it starts at a younger age with each generation. It's kinda scary sometimes."

His lovely brunette wife nodded. "I think part of it is that he wants to follow what you're doing. He knows that fighting's part of your job, so it's his way of trying to connect with you when you're not around."

Jack sighed. "Well, with the way things are shaping up now, it looks like I won't be around for quite a while. Even if the Chairman plans on fighting this war defensively, I've still got no way to tell when our next shore leave will be. We may be private sector, but we've still got tours of duty; they're just called 'contracts' now."

Rose smiled. "Maybe, but Boris has always been good about making sure that you get to spend time with us. I'm sure he'll work out something."

"We'll see how it goes," said Jack, "How're you holding up, Rose?"

"I'm all right for now," she replied, "Things have been quiet at work, but I suspect that will change real soon; the demand for counselors always spikes once the fighting starts. It may be job security, but I wish it didn't have to be that way."

Jack nodded. "I hear you.

Before he could continue his console beeped, and he saw that he had an incoming call from the bridge. "Hang on a second, Rose; looks like Kevin's got some news."

Switching over to the other line, he saw his friend's face appear on the screen. "Hey, Kev. This better be important; you're cutting into quality time with the Missus."

Kevin winced. "Ah, sorry about that. I just wanted to give you a heads up, Raiden; I'll be hosting a briefing in about an hour."

Jack raised an eyebrow; Kevin only used his call sign when they were in a battle or about to head into one. "Does it have something to do with the Council's press conference and why I felt this ship pick up speed a little while ago?"

Kevin nodded. "We're headed for Line One. The Earth forces are on their way; looks like they're planning on taking us head-on."

"The Alliance doesn't do 'subtle' very well, eh?" Jack replied.

Kevin chuckled. "Understatement of the year. Haven't seen a fleet like the one they've massed since the last war. It's gonna be all hands on deck for this one, and we'll be right in the middle of it."

"Got it," said Jack, "I'll be there. Are the suits ready for action?"

"Courtney's already given the hangar crews the heads-up," said Kevin, "They'll be good to go well before the shit hits the fan."

Jack nodded. "All right. Anything else?"

Kevin shook his head. "That about covers it. See you at the briefing."

As Kevin disconnected Jack brought his wife back onto the screen. "Sorry about that."

Rose smiled. "It's all right. What did Kevin want?"

"Just to make sure I don't miss an upcoming meeting," said Jack, "I'll get to learn what we're flying into, so that should be fun."

Rose nodded. "Okay. Jack… be careful, all right?"

Jack smirked. "No promises there, Rose. You know how I can be once the fighting starts."

"Jack, I'm serious," said Rose, "There are too many widows in the PLANTs already, and I don't want to be one of them! Promise me you won't take any unnecessary risks, all right? John and I both need you to get through this in one piece."

Jack smiled and nodded. "All right, Rose. I promise I won't do anything too crazy."

Rose sighed. "That's all I can ask for, I guess. Stay safe, Jack. I love you."

"I love you too, Rose," he replied before ending the call.

He leaned back in his chair while smoothing over a wrinkle in his uniform. The last thing he wanted to do was make his wife worry, but he supposed that there was just no avoiding it here. It was just one more thing that he would have to make the Earth Alliance answer for.

_You should've stayed on your side of the Zero Line, Earth forces_, he thought as he felt a familiar dark energy awakening within him, _I guess I'm just going to have to reintroduce to you to someone you met in the last war. I hope you haven't forgotten 'Jack The Ripper', because he hasn't forgotten you._

He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them again there was just a flicker of red in them. It was a hint of the beast he would soon unleash upon the enemy.

_I think it's time for 'Jack' to let 'er rip!_

….

"What?" Shinn burst out, "What do you mean we're not deploying? The world's at war now!"

"Calm down, Shinn," Rey admonished him, putting his hand on his shoulder.

Shinn brushed him off and glared at his friend. "Like hell I will! We're really just supposed to sit here while the Alliance attacks the PLANTs? That's bullshit!"

"Mister Asuka, stand down _now!_" Talia barked, "You're a soldier of ZAFT, not some street punk, and I expect you to act accordingly. Control yourself!"

Off to the side he was dimly aware of Lunamaria putting her hand to her forehead. "Idiot…"

"Understatement of the year," Wufei quipped.

As the four top pilots currently on the _Minerva_, they had been summoned to the Captain's office so Talia could brief them on the current situation. Shinn had kept his cool at first, and had been raring to go when the Captain had said that the Alliance armada had crossed the Zero Line, but this was too much. Their homeland was about to come under assault, and they were just expected to standby in Orb and do _nothing_?

Talia glared at him. "Contain your anger and _think _for a moment, Shinn. From our position down here on the surface it is literally impossible for us to arrive at the PLANTs in time to aid in the defense of our homeland. The battle would be over long before we even got close to L5."

"But we can't just stay in Orb and do nothing!" Shinn protested.

"Permission to speak freely, Captain?" asked Rey.

Talia gave Shinn's fellow Red a cautious nod. "Go ahead."

"I understand that simple logistics prohibit us from making it to the PLANTs in time to repel the coming assault," he said, "However, why do we remain in Orb at all? We have no sufficient reason to stay that I am aware of, and if the Earth forces are on the move up in space they are doubtlessly advancing on the surface as well. Carpentaria is ZAFT's major bastion of power in the Pacific Ocean, and the Earth Alliance would be foolish if they did not send their surface navy to attack it. Our most logical move would be to leave Orb immediately and head to Carpentaria so we can shore up the defenses there."

Shinn nodded, relieved that Rey had his back. "He's right, Captain. There's no place for us here in Orb! We should be doing our part to help ZAFT, even if that's not up at L5!"

Talia shook her head. "Believe me, I am in full agreement with you, but we cannot simply charge off without orders. As of right now, the Defense Council has not seen fit to provide us with a new mission that better fits the current circumstances. Until we hear otherwise, I'm afraid that we are confined to the Orb Union."

"But we're the most advanced ship in the fleet!" cried Lunamaria, "How can the Council keep us stationed in a neutral nation when they need our power to help them win this war?"

Talia's eyes narrowed. "It is not our place to question the Council, Miss Hawke. They are the ones who grasp the full strategic picture; we operate on a much more tactical level. If the Council has not yet seen fit to order us to move out, then there must be a reason for it. If we act impulsively then we could be inadvertently jeopardizing whatever stratagem our superiors have in place."

Wufei folded his arms. "So you won't take any initiative whatsoever?"

Talia gave him a harsh glare. "I don't know how things work with the group you've operated with before, Wufei, but ZAFT is a professional fighting force. As soldiers we're expected to follow our orders and act as part of a cohesive whole; taking independent action without consulting our superiors is a recipe for disaster."

"But waiting around for exact orders is hardly productive," Wufei countered, "Were you explicitly ordered to maintain your position in the Orb Union, or did the Council simply not provide new orders that better fit the rapidly shifting events?"

"They did not provide us with new mobilization orders," Talia admitted, "but that's hardly license for us to depart here at will. I recognize the distinction that you bring up, but an asset as powerful as the _Minerva _cannot operate with complete freedom. We need guidance from above so we can act with purpose and direction."

"A move from here to Carpentaria would have purpose and direction," said Wufei, "and under the current circumstances it would hardly be unreasonable."

Shinn raised an eyebrow. Was Wufei actually siding with him?

"It might make sense to us," Talia replied, "but our superiors may not see it that way. Until we receive new orders or the local authorities force our hand, we will be remaining here. If you wish to leave, Wufei, I can hardly stop you since you're not formally under my command. However, for the time being the _Minerva _will hold its position and that is _not _up for debate."

Wufei shrugged. "Whatever you say."

Talia turned back to Shinn and his fellow Reds. "We may be on standby here for the moment, but that does not mean that we will be sitting idly. I expect the three of you to continue to hone your skills in simulations and assist the hangar crews in maintaining your machines. We may have to move out at a moment's notice, and you _will _be prepared to do so. Is that clear?"

Shinn and the others nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

Talia nodded. "Good. That's all for now. You're dismissed."

Shinn kept his composure until they got out of the room. Once they were clear he slammed his fist against the wall.

"Damn it!" he growled, "What the hell's wrong with her?"

"She's only doing what she believes is best as Captain," said Rey, "She has responsibilities that we do not."

"Rey's right, Shinn," said Lunamaria, "I don't like it either, but orders are orders; we're stuck here until further notice."

Wufei shook his head. "Such a limited mindset."

Lunamaria glared at him. "What's _that _supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what I said," Wufei replied, "Simply waiting for orders and not acting on your own initiative limits what you're capable of. I would've thought that ZAFT would encourage greater flexibility in its officers, especially given your numerical handicap."

"Well, no one said that _you _have to stick around," Shinn grumbled, "You get to leave whenever you feel like it."

"Why would I leave?" said Wufei, "What I want is already on its way here. All I have to do is sit back and wait."

Lunamaria raised an eyebrow. "What you want is coming here? What on Earth are you talking about?"

Wufei jerked his thumb in the direction of Talia's office. "Rey was right back there, you know; it's not just the Earth Alliance's space forces that are on the move right now. I'm sure that their surface navy is heading this way as we speak. They might be after Carpentaria, but they could very well attack Orb as well. After all, neutrality was no guarantee of security in the last war. In fact, they have a very good reason to move against Orb; ZAFT's premiere battleship is here. Nations have used much less as a pretext for invading other countries in the past."

"The Earth Alliance would be risking a great deal in attacking a neutral nation so early on in a new conflict," said Rey, "and their numbers, while formidable, aren't what they used to be. An invasion of Orb is a needless diversion and waste of valuable strategic resources."

Lunamaria nodded. "Rey's right. Attacking the Orb Union at this point doesn't make much strategic sense. They're better off focusing all their strength against us. Going after a neutral country is just going to turn global opinion against them."

"True," Wufei admitted, "but the Atlantic Federation may have something else in mind. The threat of invasion can be quite potent in and of itself, especially considering what the Orb Union suffered at the hands of the Americans during the last war. Just the presence of the Pacific Fleet may be enough to convince Orb's leaders to throw their lot in with the Alliance… and what do you think would happen to the _Minerva _should that occur?"

Shinn's eyes narrowed as he put two and two together. "They'd sell us out. Bastards! It's just like before!"

Lunamaria shook her head. "I can't see the Chief Representative doing that. She seemed like such a nice person, and she was on the _Minerva _during Operation Redemption; she saw us help save the world from the falling ruins. She wouldn't send us up river like that… would she?"

Rey sighed. "We cannot rule anything out. Even if Orb's head of state is positively disposed towards us, other figures in her government may not be so inclined to view us as friends. The threat of an Alliance invasion would be serious indeed; as Chief Representative, Lady Cagalli has to look out for the interests of her people first and foremost. Could she really continue to harbor us with the prospect of another Atlantic Federation assault on her country hanging over her head?"

"She should stand up to them!" Shinn barked, "If she really believes in her country's ideals then she should give the Americans the finger! Orb's leaders don't _really _believe the crap they spout, though; you can bet on them handing us over to the Alliance at the first opportunity."

"That may very well come to pass," said Wufei, "If it does, what do you plan to do about it?"

"That's obvious," Shinn shot back, "We fight our way out! There's no way I'm going to go along quietly when they try to hand us over to the Alliance!"

Wufei chuckled. "So sometimes even _you _are capable of talking sense, eh? Better late than never, I guess."

Shinn scowled, "If that's supposed to be a compliment it's a shitty one."

Wufei shrugged. "Take what you can get. Your piloting skills are nothing to write home about, that's for sure."

Shinn clenched his fists. "Why, you…"

"Enough, Shinn," said Rey, once again putting his hand on his shoulder, "Don't let him get under your skin."

"Forget about that," said Lunamaria, stepping forward and studying Wufei carefully, "_If _we have to fight our way out of Orb, will _you _be helping us?"

"I'm still on this ship, aren't I?" Wufei replied, "It wouldn't exactly be helpful for me if it got destroyed or captured by the enemy. I certainly can't let anything happen to Nataku. If we are attacked here, you can count on me taking the field."

Lunamaria folded her arms. "And beyond that? When we do leave here, I'll be anything that we'll be heading straight to Carpentaria. Are you still going to stick around after that?"

Wufei nodded. "Why wouldn't I? This ship's been at the center of the action since the raid on Armory One. So long as that trend continues, there is nowhere else that I would rather be."

Shinn saw Rey's eyes narrowed. "What are you after, Wufei? You may have fought alongside Heero up in space, but you did not follow him and the others after the orbital battle. What game are you playing by staying on board the _Minerva_?"

Wufei shook his head. "You still haven't figured it out? I've practically spelled it out for you already."

"Well, give us a hand," Shinn growled, "I'm sick of you acting like you know something that we don't."

"Shinn's right," said Lunamaria, "Don't get me wrong; having you here is a big boost to our combat power, so I'm all for having you stick around. However, if you're going to keep fighting alongside us, then we deserve to know your real reason for doing so."

"Fine," Wufei replied, "You want the truth? I'm not fighting for a flag like you. There's no homeland that I'm defending and no ruler that I'm serving. I'm not even fighting for Heero or the others; their cause isn't mine. They're old friends, but our reasons for fighting are our own."

"Yeah," said Shinn, "We got that each of you guys tend to do things your own way."

"If you're not fighting for a nation or your friends, then what _are _you fighting for?" asked Rey.

Wufei closed his eyes. "I'm looking for answers. I want to know if 'peace' at the expense of lives can really be defined as peace."

He turned and started to walk away. "I want to see if mankind is really capable of defeating the evil that festers within its heart, and whether or not it _deserves _the peace that soldiers give their lives to win. Most of all, though… I'm here because this is my home."

Lunamaria raised an eyebrow. "_This _is your home? You mean Orb?"

Wufei shook his head, and his answer chilled Shinn to the bone. "My home is not a country. My home…"

"…is the battlefield."

….

The alarm was still blaring as Athrun raced through the _Gondwana_'s corridors, hot on Heine's heels. "All hands, Level One Battle Stations! I repeat, all hands, Level One Battle Stations! This is not a drill!"

_This is it_, he thought as he and his guide entered the pilot ready-room and suited up, _I can't turn back now._

He saw Heine give him an encouraging nod as he zipped up his flight suit. "We're ready for this."

Athrun nodded, hoping that he looked more confident than he felt. "Right. Let's go."

Grabbing their helmets, the two pilots swiftly entered the hangar and made a beeline right for their mobile suits. The service crews nodded at them as they approached and flashed thumbs-up; their machines were ready to go.

"It's not my place to tell someone with your experience how to fight," said Heine, "but for this mission, remember that you're my wingman. After this is over I think the Chairman will let you act independently, but for now I want you to follow my lead, all right?"

"Got it," Athrun replied.

Heine nodded before entering his ZAKU Phantom's cockpit. "I'll see you out there."

Athrun returned the nod before getting into his machine and closing the hatch. Quickly powering up the unit, he ran through its startup checklist.

"Weapons, thrusters, hydraulics, sensors, Blaze Pack…" he muttered as he studied his monitors, "Looks good."

Heine's face appeared in the bottom left corner of the screen. "We'll launch from the top portside catapult. You're up after me."

"Copy that," said Athrun, "Ready whenever you are."

On his monitor he saw Heine's orange machine leave its berth and make for their designated catapult. Athrun followed his lead and watched as his flight lead got locked into the launch system. The panel of lights on the side wall went from red to yellow, then finally green, and the Blaze ZAKU Phantom shot out of the carrier like a cannonball.

"Here we go," Athrun muttered as the signalman off to the side waved him forward.

A few seconds later his machine was locked into the catapult. The lights on the side wall went through their sequence, and then the female voice of one of the carrier's mobile suit flight coordinators came over his speakers.

"Athrun Zala," she said, "You are clear for launch. Good luck!"

He nodded. "Roger that. Athrun Zala, launching!"

His green machine surged forward, and before he knew it he had cleared the carrier. Checking his scanners, he quickly found Heine and gunned his engines to catch up with his flight lead. The space around him was already full of mobile suits; the _Gondwana_ was launching her units with incredible efficiency.

_So many of them_, he thought as he watched his comrades fly out of the carrier, _and they're all from just one ship…_

As the fleet flagship, the _Gondwana _was at the heart of the armada that ZAFT had assembled to halt the advance of the Earth Alliance forces. Composed of no less than a thousand ships, it equaled the numerical strength of the approaching force, but this fleet was made up of roughly half of ZAFT's total fighting strength as opposed to the Alliance's armada, which was just around thirty percent of what the Atlantic Federation and its allied states could field. Athrun knew that ZAFT was maintaining reserve battle groups to send into the fray at the first sign of trouble, but it would be a very bad thing if they were called upon; losses for the Coordinator forces would hurt them much more than what their enemy would suffer when they took casualties.

He had forgotten what it was like to stare down a fleet of this size. The Earth Alliance armada seemed to sprawl out like an oncoming tsunami. The multitude of warships looked like a vast school of sharks about to plunge into a feeding frenzy, and the space in front of them blinked with countless tiny blue-white shooting stars; the thruster trails of mobile suits. There were familiar faces in the form of _Drake_-class escort ships, _Nelson_-class battleships, and _Agamemnon_-class carriers, but there were also newer and more intimidating opponents in the form of the wolf packs of _Typhoon_-class destroyers and the mighty _Victory _floating in the dark heart of the armada. The oncoming Dagger L mobile suits looked like a massive swarm of angry hornets propelled by light blue fire, and it would just be a matter of seconds now before they'd be within firing range of their ZAFT counterparts.

It was certainly an imposing sight, but Athrun's confidence was buoyed by the force that would be backing up him and Heine. The sight of rank up on rank of _Laurasia_-class frigates and _Nazca_-class destroyers offered a comforting familiarity, and that was bolstered by the presence of no less than three _Orizaba_-class carrier/dreadnoughts. Interspersed with the older vessels were the newer _Hel_-class cruisers, and Athrun was impressed by how many ZAFT had managed to produce in the two years since the end of the last war. Last but not least, of course, was the _Gondwana_, although Athrun knew that the ship's weaponry didn't quite measure up to its formidable appearance. Behind them all were the pristine hourglass colonies of the PLANTs, a powerful reminder as to what they were all fighting for today.

If the warships of the defending fleet were a display of ZAFT's shipbuilding prowess, then the multitude of mobile suits deploying from them were a grand testament to Coordinator ingenuity. Squadrons of ZAKU Warriors filled the void, each equipped with a Blaze, Gunner, or Slash Wizard Pack. Leading them were ZAKU Phantoms much like the units Athrun and Heine were flying, and those too were fitted with augmentation packs. However, it wasn't just the newest generation of mobile suits that were deploying to defend the Coordinator homeland; Athrun spotted more than a few teams of older GuAIZ Rs, and even original model GuAIZs and modified GINNs from the last war. All were flying from their host warships as swiftly as the vessels could launch them, and they were rushing headlong at the incoming enemy.

"Heads up," said Heine, "Firing data's coming in from the _Gondwana_!"

Indeed it was; Athrun's console beeped as he saw his sensor grid become a sea of overlapping crimson lines, each one representing a firing lane. The fact that he was getting this now meant only one thing; the armada was about to cut loose. Eager to avoid getting shot down by a friendly warship, Athrun quickly followed Heine as his flight lead maneuvered into a safe zone amidst the firing lanes.

**Start "The Trooper"**

A few moments later the ZAFT armada practically erupted with weapons fire. A gargantuan storm of particle beams, railgun rounds, and missiles ripped forth from the assembled capital ships in a tsunami of death. At the exact same time, the Earth forces cut loose as well, and the crisscrossing barrages created a titanic and lethal light display of the sort that the world had not witnessed since the final battle of the last war. Strings of explosions tore through both sides as the front ranks of the armadas absorbed the initial salvos; thousands of lives snuffed out in an instant, and this was just the first few seconds of the battle.

"You okay?" called Heine.

Athrun nodded, amazed that he hadn't been hit in the massive crossfire. "Still in one piece."

"Good," his flight lead replied, "Here they come!"

As the battle groups and squadrons that made up the two armadas began to exchange fire at will, the first waves of Earth Alliance and ZAFT mobile suits crashed into each other. Beam rifles, railguns and missile launchers flared to life, a smaller but no less deadly version of the gargantuan opening bombardment conducted by the capital ships. Energy melee weapons glowed in the hands of mechanical gladiators, with units on both sides already hacking into each other.

On his display he saw a cluster of six Dagger Ls become highlighted as Heine sent him more data. "They're heading right for us. Let's show them what we got!"

"Copy that," said Athrun as he zeroed in on his foes.

Four of the approaching machines had no augmentation packs whatsoever, but two of them were equipped with the twin recoilless cannons of the Doppelhorn Pack. They were approaching in tight formation, and the two Doppelhorn units wasted no time in opening up with their artillery. Athrun and Heine were able to evade their fire without too much effort, but those salvos were swiftly followed up by beam rifle fire from the other four machines.

"Amateurs," said Heine, "Eat this!"

The missile launchers mounted on his Blaze Pack flared to life as multiple warheads surged towards their targets. Rather than mirror his flight lead, Athrun instead unleashed a volley of precise emerald death from his rifle. Heine's missiles obliterated the front ranks of the enemy squad, while Athrun's shots ripped apart the two Doppelhorn units.

_They kept their formation too close_, he thought as the six short-lived explosions faded, _They must've been green…_

"Nice shooting!" praised Heine, "Another group incoming!"

Athrun nodded, drawing and igniting his beam tomahawk before following his flight lead right into the enemy pack. He let fly with a volley of missiles, turning three Dagger Ls into fireballs while his partner picked off two more with his beam rifle. Another Alliance machine rushed at him, beam saber raised, and Athrun brought his own melee weapon up to block the enemy's strike. After deflecting the blow he swiftly retaliated, burying his blade in the cockpit of the hostile mobile suit.

_I still prefer beam sabers to this_, he thought as the enemy machine exploded, _but I'll take what I can get._

Indeed, he certainly couldn't afford to discard his tomahawk now; more hostile mobile suits were inbound, and they looked like they meant business. Surging forward to meet them head-on, Athrun blocked a few beam rifle shots on his shield before slamming into a Dagger L like a linebacker. Throwing the machine and its pilot off balance, Athrun quickly hacked his foe to bits. Another unit tried to hit him from the left flank, but he was saved by Heine, who cleaved the mobile suit in half with his melee weapon.

"Thanks for the save," said Athrun as he shot down another machine.

"Anytime," Heine replied while carving into another Dagger L with his axe.

Expending the rest of his missiles on another trio of Dagger Ls, Athrun followed up his barrage with a volley of particle beams. Two more enemy machines bit the dust, but it felt like he was trying to fight his way through an ocean of mechanical combatants. Athrun and Heine might be holding their own in this massive brawl, but they didn't seem to be advancing, and they certainly weren't in any position to threaten the enemy's warships right now.

All around them it appeared to be the same; both sides' mobile suits were locked in furious clashes, with neither party able to gain the upper hand. As the mobile suits continued their chaotic and brutal clash, the warships behind them swapped salvos with abandon, launching more beams, railgun rounds, and missiles than there were stars in the sky. The lighter vessels of both sides were being decimated by the heavy fire being exchanged, while the heavier warships were already sporting numerous scars. If ZAFT emerged victorious today then Athrun was sure that the shipyards would be busy for quite some time to come repairing the battle damage inflicted on the metal titans that were locked in this gargantuan head-to-head clash.

"We're not getting anywhere with this!" he growled in frustration as he cut down another machine.

"The battle's young," said Heine as he shot down a pair of Dagger Ls with his rifle, "Give it time."

Heine was right; the fight had only just begun, and in a brawl this large Athrun wouldn't be able to just carve his way through the enemy ranks in a matter of minutes. He also had to remind himself that he wasn't flying the same mobile suit that he'd wielded in the late campaigns of the last war. The Blaze ZAKU Phantom was a good machine, but it was no Justice. It was only natural that he would have to fight harder with this unit in order to make progress in this titanic battle.

Continuing to fight his way through the seemingly endless waves of mobile suits, Athrun tried to scan the sea of foes for any familiar faces from the Armory One raid. Unfortunately there were just far too many hostile contacts for him to get an accurate picture or zero in on any one machine that was outside his immediate area. At the very least, he couldn't tell if the Gaia was active on this battlefield or not, and at this rate the only way he would find out for sure would be if he ran into it.

_Focus on what's in front of you_, he mentally chided himself as he picked off two more Dagger Ls with his beam rifle, _otherwise you're going to get killed._

"Shit," he heard Heine hiss as his flight lead struck down a mobile suit with his beam tomahawk, "I've seen those before... Athrun, these are our new targets!"

Athrun's eyes narrowed as Heine sent him new combat data. The machines that showed up on his monitor were not mobile suits, but instead mobile armors, and familiar ones at that. Their hulls were broad and circular, larger than any mobile suit, and they were bristling with weaponry. Two twin heavy energy cannons were mounted on the top of the hull, and they were augmented by multipurpose missile launchers. Mounted on the edge of the circular hull to provide short-range anti-aircraft fire was a ring of ten Igelstellung CIWS.

"Juggernaut assault mobile armors," said Athrun as he shot down another Dagger L, "I thought those were all wiped out in the last war!"

"The Alliance kept producing them after the peace treaty was signed," Heine replied as he blasted a pair of machines, "After all, it's not like those units were subject to any restrictions."

"Damn it!" Athrun growled as he cut down a mobile suit with his axe, "They're going to blast their way right through to the capital ships!"

Indeed, they were already in the process of doing so. Athrun counted at least a few dozen of the machines, flanked by supporting squadrons of Dagger Ls, carving swaths of destruction through ZAFT's forward mobile suit teams. Waves of crimson fire spewed forth from their topside cannons, utterly disintegrating any machine caught in their path. Their missile launchers were busy as well, letting fly with streams of warheads that tore into the ZAFT squadrons trying to stop the mobile armors' advance. Suppressing fire from the ring of CIWS was just the icing on a very lethal cake, while their tough hulls were shrugging off the glancing blows they'd taken so far.

"You remember how to fight these things, right?" asked Heine as the two of them began cutting a path through the nearby Dagger L squadrons to get to the closest Juggernaut.

Athrun nodded as he hacked into a machine with his axe. "Their armor's thick, but they're vulnerable from beneath. Their batteries are located in the belly too, so punching through the hide down there can take the whole thing down."

Heine smiled on his screen. "Good memory! I thought you might be a little rusty after not having to fight these things for two years!"

"It'll be a little harder than last time," said Athrun while shooting down a Dagger L, "The beam tomahawk won't cut the same way as the sabers the Justice had."

"I know," Heine replied as he nailed another machine with a headshot, "but these are the weapons we have to work with, and we've got a job to do. Let's get to it!"

_Right_, thought Athrun while carving up a hostile contact, _before they start opening up on the capital ships…_

Heine went low, and Athrun stuck right with him. Picking off enemy units in rapid succession with precision rifle fire, they worked their way through the crowd towards the lead heavy mobile armors. The squadron escorting their closest target began to redeploy, already moving to intercept them.

"Looks like they're not going to make it easy on us," said Heine.

"They never do," said Athrun, "Watch out; they've got some Doppelhorn units in the mix!"

"Good eye," Heine praised, "Let's get 'em!"

They rushed in as the Juggernaut's escorts fanned out. The regular Dagger Ls made up the forward group moving to intercept Athrun and Heine, while the Doppelhorn units stayed with the mobile armor, their guns already tracking the two ZAFT pilots. Zigzagging through the incoming fire, Athrun and Heine started to thin out the herd with quick rifle volleys. The former ZAFT Red nailed two in his first attack, while the FAITH operative downed three more machines. Not content to simply trade weapons fire with the pair of oncoming ZAKU Phantoms, the remaining Dagger Ls rushed in with beam sabers ignited.

_Bring it on_, thought Athrun as he blocked a violet blade on his beam tomahawk, _Close quarters combat is _my _turf!_

The enemy quickly found that out the hard way as Athrun swiftly carved into the Dagger L's cockpit. As the machine exploded he transitioned right into an attack on the next unit, and he proceeded to hack it to flaming pieces. A little further ahead Heine was similarly carving into the Alliance machines that tried to take him on up close, all the while evading cannon fire from the Doppelhorn units.

Having broken through the front ranks, the two ZAFT pilots took aim at the Doppelhorn Dagger Ls. Weaving through cannon fire, Athrun was the first to draw blood, hitting one of the mobile suits right in the cockpit. Heine swiftly nailed one as well, and together the two pilots polished off the remaining escorts before turning their full attention to the bulky mobile armor itself.

The Juggernaut had not been idle during their approach. As Athrun and Heine had carved a bloody swath through its escorts the heavy assault unit had rolled until its topside missile launchers were aimed squarely at the two ZAFT pilots. The mobile armor unloaded on them, forcing the pair to split up to evade the barrage. After dodging the missiles, though, it was a relatively simple matter for Athrun and Heine to come up around the Juggernaut, weaving through its CIWS fire until they were looking right at the unit's belly. Heine charged right in, hacking into the mobile armor's hull with his beam tomahawk. Athrun came in right next to him, and under their combined assault the armor gave way and they were able to puncture the Juggernaut's batteries. Sparks flew from the gutted machine, and the two ZAFT pilots pulled back. It wasn't a moment too soon; the heavy assault mobile armor went up in flames just a second later.

"Nice work!" said Heine, "Looks like you've still got it!"

Athrun smiled. "Thanks. You're not too bad yourself."

Heine chuckled as he picked off a Dagger L with his beam rifle. "High praise, coming from you. So, you up for another one?"

Athrun nodded as he cut down another machine. "Just pick a target. I've got your back."

"Right," said Heine, "Okay, got one. Sending the data your way now!"

It showed up on Athrun's monitor a moment later. There was the heavy assault mobile armor on his screen, and just like the one before it was flanked by escorting Dagger Ls. Once again the guarding units were a mix of regular and Doppelhorn-wielding machines, and there were no friendly units close enough to provide backup. Athrun and Heine would be on their own, but he didn't particularly mind; he was already getting the hang of working with his flight lead.

The two of them surged forward, and Athrun was thankful for the extra thrusters built into the Blaze Pack. The increased mobility was a lifesaver in such a chaotic environment. Sure, it wasn't as fast as the Justice, but right now he would take what he could get.

All around him he could see ZAFT mobile suit teams moving in to intercept additional incoming Juggernaut mobile armors. While some groups were clearly led by veteran pilots and showed signs of success, others were composed only of new recruits and were being cut to ribbons by the heavy assault mobile armors and their escorts. Overall the defenses appeared to be holding, but Athrun refused to let himself become complacent The battle had only just begun, and he knew from experience that the momentum could swing from one side to the other at a moment's notice.

_Remember why you're here_, he told himself as he covered Heine's advance through the Dagger Ls that stood between them and the next Juggernaut, _If these guys breach the defenses, the PLANTs are done for. You can't let that happen!_

He'd already born witness to one Bloody Valentine Tragedy. He refused to let another happen on his watch.

**End "The Trooper"**

….

**Start "The Round Table"**

"Huh," said Pixy as crimson fire from the Orthros cannon wielded by his Gunner ZAKU Warrior disintegrated two Dagger Ls, "They're not doing half bad."

"Who?" Cipher replied as he sliced a machine in half with his GOUF Ignited's Tempest beam sword.

Pixy nodded at his sensors. "Zala's kid and the guy from FAITH. They're already on their second Juggernaut. We're falling behind, buddy."

Cipher chuckled while mauling a Dagger L with his Slayer Whip heat rod. "Is that so? We'd better step things up, then. We can't have them showing us up, after all; we have a reputation to uphold."

Pixy grinned as he blew another machine to atoms. "Got that right. These guys are cannon fodder; let's go after something that actually has meat on the bones."

"The Juggernauts won't be much better," said Cipher as a barrage of emerald beams from his 4-barrel Draupnir gun shredded two more Dagger Ls, "They're big, but they're not exactly hard to kill."

"They're all we got to work with right now," Pixy shot back as he destroyed another mobile suit, "I'm not seeing any aces on the field right now, so if we want something a little more challenging we'll have to settle for them."

Cipher sighed while hacking apart a machine with his blade. "If we have to 'settle' for them then they hardly constitute a challenge to begin with. Still, I suppose you have a point."

Pixy smirked. "Pick a target, buddy; I've got your back!"

It didn't take long for his flight lead to change course and start heading for a nearby Juggernaut. True to his word, Pixy was right behind him, his rifle raised and ready to take out anything that stood between them and their objective.

_This thing's got a nice kick to it_, he thought as he blasted two more Dagger Ls with his rifle, _I could definitely do worse for weapons…_

For all his earlier complaints about the inferiority of the Gunner ZAKU Warrior compared to the new machine being developed for him, his current mobile suit was serving him quite well in this ferocious battle. With Galm One dealing with enemies that came in for close-quarters-combat, Galm Two was free to focus targets that were at a greater distance. It was the same dynamic that the two of them had shared during the last war, and it was working just as well for them now as it had two years ago. Only one foe had ever beaten them when they'd worked together, and that adversary was absent from this battlefield. Neither Pixy nor his flight lead would be happy to admit that, but that absence was for the best; for all their skill, without the right machines they wouldn't stand much of a chance against Heero Yuy and his upgraded Wing Zero.

With the way things stood now, the Galm Team couldn't afford to get caught up in a prolonged duel with a skilled opponent, as much as they might've enjoyed such a fight. The broader battle was in full swing, and it wouldn't do the mercenary duo any good to find a worthy opponent at the cost of taking their attention away from the rest of the enemy forces. Right now they were carving a path of carnage through the ranks of the Earth Alliance mobile suits, and that was exactly what Durandal was paying them for. If all went well and the PLANTs survived this battle unscathed, Pixy and his partner could expect a considerable bonus in their paycheck.

_We certainly negotiated a good rate for our services_, he mused with a chuckle as he shot down another machine, _Then again, it wasn't that hard; Durandal _really _wanted us to fight for him. Hard to blame him, considering our reputation…_

"Go low," said Cipher as he slashed a Dagger L in half, "We'll punch through the escorts and skewer it from beneath."

"Copy that," Pixy replied, sticking with his flight lead as the GOUF Ignited went into a dive.

A few seconds later they were beneath their target and the mobile suits surrounding it. The Dagger Ls wasted no time in reorienting to intercept them, but the Juggernaut itself continued to proceed forward. That suited Pixy just fine; the escorts would be a lot easier to deal with if they weren't being supported by the assault mobile armor.

A rain of particle beams and cannon fire flew at them, but the Galm Team weaved through the barrage with casual ease. The enemy was panicked and sloppy, and Pixy had a pretty good idea as to why; any mobile suit pilot worthy of the title would've recognized the logo emblazoned on his and his flight lead's machines. The dogs of war were on the hunt, and they were determined to bring down their prey.

Pixy was the first to engage, letting fly with a stream of crimson energy from his Orthros cannon. The blast ripped through the front ranks and took down two Dagger Ls, opening a gap that Cipher immediately exploited. Galm One rushed right in, cutting one mobile suit in half with his sword while ripping another to pieces with his Slayer Whip. Darts of emerald fire flew from the wrist-mounted Draupnir cannons, and three more machines were torn apart in the lethal hailstorm.

"I'm making my run," said Cipher.

Pixy nodded. "I've got you covered!"

Galm One charged the Juggernaut, gunning straight for its belly and ignoring the surviving escorts. The remaining Dagger Ls didn't even have time to engage them; Pixy was already tearing into them with blasts of red death. One Alliance machine after another fell to Galm Two's fire, and while the Juggernaut was now beginning to roll to bring its heavy weaponry to bear on the mercenary duo Pixy knew that the move was far too late.

Gunning his engines, Cipher plunged his beam sword into the gut of the enemy. As soon as he pierced the armor he followed up with a stream of fire from his Draupnir cannons, and Pixy couldn't help but wince as he imagined all the internal damage those bolts of green energy were doing to their target. A second later Galm One withdrew his sword and pulled back, barely getting clear in time as the assault mobile armor exploded.

Pixy chuckled as he shot down another Dagger L. "Cutting it a little close there, buddy!"

"The deed is done," Cipher replied coolly as he speared a mobile suit on his blade, "Let's move on; our next target awaits us."

Pixy nodded. "Copy that. I'll follow your lead."

Apparently his partner had already found a suitable target, because his GOUF Ignited proceeded to jet forward straight into a pack of Alliance mobile suits. Shrugging as he went along for the ride, Pixy joined his flight lead in carving a path of destruction and death through the enemy ranks. In the distance he could spot their target; another Juggernaut mobile armor and its escorts.

_We're getting pretty far out in front_, he mentally noted as he checked his sensors, _If we keep this up we might be able to start hitting some of their smaller warships soon. Taking a few of those down should give our pay a nice little boost._

"They're not here," said Cipher while slashing a Dagger L in half, "How disappointing…"

Pixy raised an eyebrow as he shot down another machine. "Who?"

"Desperado," Cipher replied before mauling a mobile suit with his heat rod, "I was hoping for the chance to go up against their Winds of Destruction, but I see no sign of them on this battlefield."

Pixy nodded as he scanned the wider fight. "Yeah, you're right. Looks like it's mostly Alliance regulars that are out here today."

"A shame," said Cipher, "I thought our fellow dogs of war might be able to offer a better fight than the cannon fodder we're dealing with."

Pixy shrugged as he blasted a pair of Dagger Ls. "I guess the Alliance didn't want any auxiliaries and guns for hire involved in its grand assault on the PLANTs. It's too bad, really; it's not much of a fight without them."

Cipher chuckled while impaling another hostile machine. "Indeed. They're not like our Chairman; he's much morewilling to bring in us mercenaries when the chips are down. Results are what matter, not the patriotic devotion of the soldiers."

Pixy didn't reply, but there was no need to; he was in full agreement with his flight lead. As the two of them continued to blaze a path of carnage through the ranks of the Earth Alliance mobile suit squadrons, Pixy could spot another one of the Chairman's guns for hire providing evidence to back up Galm One's statement.

_Nice to see you're out here too, Raiden_, he mused while shooting down a Dagger L, _and I hope you'll continue to help us show the Alliance that they made a mistake in not bringing _their _dogs of war to the party today. This is what we live for, after all, and who are the politicians to deny us from doing what we do best?_

**End "The Round Table"**

….

Rushing across the battlefield, his machine an azure angel of death, Jack was completely in his element. He hadn't experienced a clash like this since the final battle of the last war, and while the stakes were sobering there was no denying the rush he felt at once again engaging the enemy in a titanic winner-take-all brawl.

_The Raijin's definitely living up to expectations_, he thought as he sliced a Dagger L in half, _I'm glad Boris was able to get his hands on this thing!_

Technically speaking, Raijin hadn't been the mobile suit's original name. In fact, the unit hadn't even been given a moniker beyond its numerical designation when it had first been constructed. Built shortly after the war as a prototype, the ZGMF-V01 had been envisioned as a possible base from which new ZAFT mobile suits could be developed. While past Coordinator mobile suits like the GINN and GuAIZ had been rather bulky designs, the V01 was a radical departure from that model. Compared to past units, it was lightweight and slender, with the design focus being on speed and maneuverability. Anything that could possibly detract from the unit's incredible mobility had been stripped away, to the point that despite being an advanced next-generation prototype the mobile suit lacked Phase Shift Armor since that would've drawn power away from the thrusters.

A dark blue hull with a horizontal green visual sensor in its head, the V01 was an intimidating machine despite its relatively slim build. Mounted on its forearms were a pair of shields which doubled as storage compartments for the unit's primary weapons; two MMI-540 Valkyrie beam swords. These were more slender versions of the double-edged melee weapon employed by the GOUF Ignited, and could be wielded either as handheld weapons or deployed directly from the shields that housed them. The only other armament possessed by the machine was a pair of fire-linked MMI-GAU25A 20mm CIWS mounted in the mobile suit's head for dealing with missiles and light aircraft.

While the V01 had shown great promise as a prototype, in flight testing its flaws had become readily apparent. Control of the machine's center of gravity was absolutely vital in combat, and any mistakes could lead to blows with very little striking power even though the attacks were made with beam swords. The unit's high speed was another factor; it was just too difficult for the average pilot to bring out the mobile suit's full potential. Since the armor's toughness had been reduced in order to lighten the weight and enhance the machine's mobility, agility was essential for survival in combat; a pilot who could not make the most of the unit's maneuverability would not survive for long. In the end the project had been mothballed and the only unit constructed had sat in storage as ZAFT turned its attention to designs that were easier for pilots to handle and promised greater survivability in combat, eventually resulting in the ZAKU series and the Second Stage prototypes developed at Armory One.

However, just because the project had been rolled up did not mean that the mobile suit produced by it had been forgotten. When no pilot from ZAFT's regular forces post-treaty had shown an aptitude for a machine of its caliber, under orders from Chairman Durandal the Integrated Design Bureau had invited a handful of contract fighters to try their hands at wielding the experimental mobile suit. Jack had been one of them, and he'd been the only one able to demonstrate proper control over the machine. Maverick Security Consulting proceeded to purchase the mobile suit at practically a bargain price, and Jack had quickly rechristened it the Raijin.

Now here it was, tearing through the battlefield like one might imagine a god of lightning would. Jack could close the distance with his foes in the blink of an eye, evading their panicked fire before plunging his blades into their machines. Occasionally he would utilize one of his arm shields to block incoming fire, but he didn't rely on them. With the Raijin, speed was the name of the game, and that suited Jack's fighting style perfectly.

While he might've been out in front, Jack wasn't the only pilot from Maverick Security Consulting on the battlefield. The other five mobile suits carried by the _Naomi Hunter _had taken off shortly after he had, and while the GuAIZs weren't nearly as fast as the Raijin they could still provide support, which they were with their beam rifles. The units might've been military surplus from the last war, but they were still deadly, especially in the hands of the veteran pilots Boris had hired to fly them. Bearing the same blue paintjob as the Raijin, they flew in a loose but disciplined formation, keeping enough distance for evasive maneuvers yet still able to maintain overlapping fields of fire.

**Start "Rules of Nature"**

Jack's eyes narrowed as he saw a group of six Dagger Ls closing in on him. "So you're next, huh? Bring it on!"

He charged at them head-on, and the enemy squad wasted no time in opening fire. Weaving through the rain of emerald particle beams, Jack rapidly closed the distance before impaling the lead Dagger L with the beam sword held in the Raijin's right hand. As he withdrew that blade from the exploding machine he blocked a beam saber strike with his second blade, this one still mounted within its arm shield. Whirling around, he sliced the second mobile suit in half before diving to avoid taking fire from the surviving four units.

Reorienting himself before rushing in for another assault, Jack sliced the head off of a Dagger L before taking down another machine with a diagonal slash. The remaining two machines were not sitting by idly, though; they both charged in, forcing Jack to climb to avoid being impaled.

"Nice try," he said as he moved in for the kill, "but you're way too slow!"

He hacked one machine to bits while blocking a particle beam on one of his shields. With a single fluid motion he brought his mobile suit around and lunged forward, skewering the final unit on his blade.

As the final explosion faded Courtney's face appeared on his screen. "Raiden, how's your machine holding up?"

Jack nodded and smiled. "Pretty damn well. It's moving even better now than it was during the trials."

"Not surprising," Courtney replied, "Boris rode the hangar crews hard to make sure that it was in peak fighting condition."

"Is that so?" said Jack as he cut down another Dagger L, "I'll have to buy him a drink for that."

"Just don't forget to stay on the move," Courtney reminded him, "I know you've got those shields, but they don't provide the same amount of cover that a ZAKU's would. If you stop, you're dead."

"I know," said Jack as he dodged fire from another group of incoming mobile suits, "I'll be careful."

Courtney rolled her eyes. "Since when have _you _ever been careful? I know you take risks; it's what you do best. I'm just trying to make sure your kid doesn't lose his dad."

"Have you been talking to Rose again?" asked Jack with a smirk as he parried a beam saber strike before gutting his attacker.

"Just watch your back, all right?" said Courtney, "If you die I just know that you'd come back to haunt me for kicks. I'd rather avoid that."

Jack chuckled; she might not have outright and said it, but it was good to know that she cared all the same. "What makes you think I'd haunt you? If I became a ghost I might mess with Kevin instead."

"I heard that, jackass," said the voice of his buddy on the _Naomi Hunter_'s bridge, sounding more than a little amused by the exchange, "Don't make me go Ghostbusters on you."

"Not gonna happen," Jack shot back as he sliced another machine in half, "So, you two want me to go somewhere specific, or just keep carving up these guys?"

"Actually," said Kevin, "we do have a target in mind."

"I'm sending the data to you now," Courtney chimed back in, "It's a Juggernaut and its escorts, so watch yourself."

Jack's eyes narrowed as the target information appeared on his screen. "Got it. I'm going in."

"Be careful, buddy," said Kevin, "Someone's gotta pay for drinks when this is all over, and I'd rather it not be me."

Jack chuckled as he thrust his blade into another Dagger L. "All right, cheapskate; I'll survive this fight so I can pick up your bar tab."

"I'm counting on you, Raiden!" said Kevin.

"We all are," said Courtney, trying to inject some sobriety back into the conversation, "None of the Juggernauts have drawn a bead on our ship yet, but if they do then we'll be in big trouble. Your target's the closest one to us; take it out!"

Jack nodded while dodging more particle beam fire. "Copy that. Raiden, out!"

Slicing a mobile suit in half with his right blade before impaling another one with the left, Jack wasted no time in rushing towards his target. The heavy assault mobile armor and its escorts were currently engaged with a squadron of ZAKU Warriors, but from the way the fight was going Jack doubted they would last much longer.

_Bunch of rookies_, he thought grimly as he watched the friendly machines get torn apart, _You can't take a Juggernaut head-on with regular mobile suits. Damn it all…_

It was too late for him to save the soldiers that were getting mauled by the Juggernaut and its supporting Dagger Ls. All he could do now was make the most of their ill-conceived attack and gut the behemoth. Pushing the Raijin's thrusters to their limits, he went into a dive and held his course until he was beneath the mobile armor and its escorts. A few of the Dagger Ls reoriented themselves to meet him, but the others were still tangling with the surviving ZAKU Warriors.

"You're mine!" he hissed as he went into a climb, weaving through the hail of particle beam fire.

Within seconds he was in striking range of the lead Dagger L, and with a single swing of his sword the unit was decapitated. Not pausing for so much as an instant, he went straight for the next machine. The pilot of the opposing unit actually managed to block his initial strike, but Jack simply thrust forward with his second blade and gutted the mobile suit. Whirling around to parry a beam saber strike from another machine, Jack immediately countered with a diagonal slash that ripped the attacker apart. Jetting to the right to dodge a volley of particle beams, he then rushed right at the pair of Dagger Ls that had fired the shots and ripped them apart.

_That takes care of the small fries_, he thought, _Time for the big one!_

Continuing forward with its main weapons blazing, the Juggernaut was a perfect target. Ascending to strike his prey, Jack brought his twin blades together and plunged them into the mobile armor's gut. Sparks and gouts of flame gushed from the mortal wound, and Jack quickly pulled his machine back. Slamming his thrusters into reverse, he still found himself rocked by the explosion that signaled the mobile armor's demise, although a quick check confirmed that he'd taken no damage.

"Target eliminated," he said.

"Nice job!" Kevin replied.

"We got another one for you," Courtney chimed in, "Watch out; this one's got new models acting as escorts!"

Jack's eyes narrowed as he studied the targeting data. "Windams... so they're finally on the front lines."

The next step in the evolution of the Atlantic Federation's mass production mobile suits, the GAT-04 Windam bore many similarities to its immediate predecessor, the GAT-02L2 Dagger L. Its overall frame clearly delineated it as a descendant of the famous GAT-X105 Strike mobile suit developed at Heliopolis over two years ago, sans the Phase Shift Armor. Like all units in this evolutionary line it had head-mounted CIWS, in this case the same four M2M5 fire-linked Todesschrecken 12.5mm models utilized by the Dagger L. Mirroring its predecessor, it also had beam sabers and Mk315 Stiletto rocket-propelled anti-armor penetrator knives, both mounted on its hips. A shield was also mounted on its left arm, although in this case it narrowed towards the end, giving it greater utility as an improvised melee weapon should the need arise. The standard color scheme for these new units was a white and blue setup that was common of Earth Alliance frontline units.

The Windam's superiority to the Dagger L was due to some significant increases in both mobility and firepower. The new model used batteries that were more efficient and had greater capacity than previous incarnations, which allowed for a serious upgrade in weaponry. As a result its ranged weapon of choice was the recently developed M9409L Beam Rifle, a firearm that was both larger and more powerful than the M703K Beam Carbine utilized by the Dagger L. Supplementing that was a rather unique modification; an Mk438/B Dual Multipurpose "Würger" SA10 missile launcher mounted within the shield, making for a decent surprise weapon in close range encounters. The unit's speed and maneuverability were greatly enhanced by the addition of powerful vernier thrusters mounted on both its legs and shoulders, making it capable of outperforming ZAFT's ZAKU series machines even if said units were equipped with Blaze Packs.

On top of all its new weapons and equipment, the Windam had another feature that was pretty much standard for units of its lineage; the ability to mount augmentation packs. The units Jack was looking at now utilized a mix of the classic Aile pack and the newer Doppelhorn pack, further enhancing their mobility and firepower. When backed up by a unit like the Juggernaut Jack knew that they would not be easy to take down.

"Stay on your toes, Raiden," Kevin cautioned, "We don't have any archived combat data on those units, just the specs. Be ready for anything."

"Good luck!" said Courtney.

Jack nodded. "Thanks. I'm going in."

He rushed straight for the escorts, and it didn't take them long to react accordingly. The Windams with the Aile packs moved out in front, while those utilizing the Doppelhorn packs set up for a barrage Both parties were rapidly closing the distance, and Jack only had a matter of seconds to pick his first target.

"All right," he hissed under his breath, "Let's do this!"

Punching his thrusters, he went for the Aile Windam at the far left wing of the formation. Working his way through a rain of particle beams, he lashed out with his beam sword, only for his adversary to block the attack on their shield. Jack instantly struck with his second blade, and this time his attack found its mark, puncturing the unit's torso and taking it down.

He didn't have any time to celebrate his latest kill, though; the other Aile Windams were moving in to attack, while the Doppelhorn units were sending concentrated salvos his way. Pushing the Raijin's agility to its limits, Jack zipped through the enemy formation like a comet, impaling one Windam before slicing another in half. A precise barrage of beam rifle fire forced him to raise both his arm shields, and his mobile suit rocked under the impacts.

_Those rifles are no joke_, he thought, _and the same goes for the pilots firing them. This won't be easy…_

Diving to avoid further fire, he reoriented himself and charged the closest unit. The Windam was able to block his initial strike with its beam saber, but a follow-up attack from his second sword was successful in gutting the machine. Whirling around to block a slash from another mobile suit, Jack countered with a thrust that went straight through his attacker's cockpit. The herd was thinning, but he wasn't out of the woods yet. His foes were actually putting up a decent fight now, and he could feel a primal energy stirring within him.

The urge to cut and slash with abandon, to fully submerge himself in the thrill of combat…

The lust to dive head-first into the ocean of blood, to cast of the few restraints that remained to bind his inner demon…

He chuckled as he hacked a Windam to bits before dodging rifle fire from another. "Not bad. What else do you got?"

His surviving enemies answered by surging forward, guns blazing. Pushing his thrusters to their limits, Jack soared through the rain of fire with speed that any lightning-god would approve of, carving into his adversaries with brutal efficiency. The body count was rising, and so was the appetite of the dark side of his psyche…

His blood was boiling, his heartbeat increasing, and a crimson haze was slowly permeating his mind. As he cut down one foe after another, one shackle after another was cast aside. The normally easy-going, good-natured 'Jack' was slowly giving way to the bloodthirsty and thrill-seeking 'Jack' that had been born all those years ago during his time as a child soldier drenched in gore and knee-deep in bodies.

Jack the human being was slowly giving way to Jack the Ripper.

Rending his mechanical foes to twisted scraps, a twisted smirk appeared on his face as he continued to hack and slash his way towards the Juggernaut. Why did he always try so hard to suppress this side of him? This was his normal; his _nature_. Whenever he spoke about his combat skills being tools for justice, he was trying to convince himself as much as the others that he was fighting for the right reasons.

But who was he kidding?

He was _born _to kill.

And so, here in the midst of a sprawling battle with the fate of not only his family and friends but millions of other people on the line, why should he hold back the part of him that actually _thrived _on the battlefield?

Why hide who he _really _was at a time like this?

He cackled as the last Aile Windam fell to his twin blades, giving him a clear path to the Doppelhorn units and the heavy assault mobile armor beyond them. "Sorry to keep you waiting. The gloves are coming off, now. Ready to play? I know I am!"

The Doppelhorn units fired away with their recoilless rifles, and even the Juggernaut was now shifting to bring its formidable array of artillery to bear on the Raijin. Jack didn't care; all he saw were targets and soon-to-be corpses. Grinning like a maniac, he bolted through the incoming fire until he was right in the faces of the Windams. His twin blades flashing in streaks of violet light, he cut one unit in half before tearing another to pieces. One of the Windams managed to ignite its beam saber, but Jack swatted the weapon aside with contemptuous ease before spearing the unit through the cockpit. The last escort fared little better, firing wildly with its cannons and rifle, even letting fly with the missile launcher built into its shield. The sloppy barrage did the Alliance pilot no good; Jack simply weaved through the fire, shot down the missile with his CIWS, and charged the Windam, impaling the machine on his twin blades. Now the path to his main target was wide open, and he surged towards the Juggernaut even as it opened up on him with everything it had.

For all the formidable firepower his foe possessed, it was utterly impotent against an adversary that it could not hit. Skirting the edges of the crimson streams of energy and shooting down missiles with his CIWS, Jack was all but taunting his enemy as he swiftly closed the distance. It would've been a simple matter to gut the mobile armor from beneath just as he had the previous one, but this time the Ripper wanted to play with his food before devouring it.

So he started with the energy cannons, slicing the weapons barrels and rendering them useless. The crew of the Juggernaut responded by unloading on him with their missiles and CIWS, but it was pitifully easy for Jack to evade their counterattacks. As soon as the current volley of warheads had flown from their launchers he darted in, ripping apart the weapons with his twin beam swords. Now it was only the CIWS that could strike at him now, and since they were all mounted along the rim of the machine it was a simple matter to keep out of their line of fire. Reorienting for the coup de grace, Jack came at the mobile armor from above and plunged his blades straight into its cockpit.

"Nice work!" said Kevin as the Juggernaut was consumed by fire.

"New targets heading your way," said Courtney, "Sending you the data now!"

Jack simply nodded and watched as the information came onto his monitor. As soon as he had all the data he rushed forward, tearing apart any Dagger L and Windam that got in his way.

"Come on!" he snarled as one mobile suit after another fell to his blades, "This better not be all you've got! After all this time…"

"_Jack. __**Is. BACK!**_"

**End "Rules of Nature"**

….

"Magnificent," said Nazara as he soared through the carnage.

The gargantuan fleet brawl was everything he had hoped for and more. Massive salvos of particle beams, railgun rounds, and missiles continued to crisscross the void between the two fleets, either hammering opposing capital ships or taking down mobile suits unfortunate enough to get caught in the middle of the firestorm. The forward ranks of the two armadas had been decimated, and with the staggering losses suffered by the smaller warships the larger vessels of both sides were being forced to wade deeper into the fray. Destroyers, cruisers and battleships tore into one another with ferocious abandon, with neither side giving or asking for quarter.

_Oh, how I've missed this_, he thought as he guided Nosferatu through the fray, _A battle within sight of the Coordinator colonies, raging like the most spectacular of forest fires, consuming all in its path… it's glorious!_

He let his gunbarrel-drones loose as he came upon a squadron of ZAKU Warriors. Opening up with all four weapons, he destroyed three mobile suits with a single salvo. He followed up with fire from his beam rifle, and another ZAKU was blown out of the sky. A salvo from his hip-mounted linear guns shot down a fifth machine, and he took down a sixth with a quick charge and thrust from his beam saber.

He grinned as his latest victim met their demise. "Is this all your genetic modifications are good for? Burn, Coordinator trash!"

_The rest of your kind will soon be joining you…_

It wasn't yet time for the Alliance's trump card to be played. The plan was to inflict enough casualties against the ZAFT fleet so that significant gaps would be opened up in their defenses. While the Coordinator forces were taking steady losses Nazara knew that they were not yet at the point where they would be vulnerable to his nuclear strike. The battle would have to rage on a while longer, but Nazara was fine with that; he hadn't had this much fun on the battlefield in a long time. With no Wing Zero to get in his way he had free reign, and he was making the most of it.

Another barrage from his gunbarrel-drones blew away a trio of GuAIZ-Rs. More of the machines returned fire, but none of them could come close to hitting the Colonel. Plunging in with his beam sword, he slashed one unit in half before whirling around and hacking another to flaming bits. His drones let fly with a web of emerald fire, obliterating three more GuAIZ-Rs and helping him carve a path through the Coordinator ranks.

"Is this the trash you mean to oppose me with, Durandal?" he snarled, "You'll have to do better than that!"

Of course, he doubted that he'd find much better on this battlefield. ZAFT's glory days of utter dominance with its mobile suits were well behind it. Casualties and defections had robbed it of its finest pilots in the last war, and despite their best recruitment efforts Nazara knew that their losses had been irreplaceable. Sure, some of the pilots that had defended the _Minerva _had shown promise, but none of them were here now, and even if they were the Colonel knew that they would not be able to stand against him. The only pilots that could take him on were down on the surface, safely out of the way.

_All according to plan_, he thought as he blasted a quartet of ZAKUs with his gunbarrel-drones, _although I suppose it _is _a bit of a pity. It would've been so satisfying to kill Heero Yuy at the moment our nukes destroyed the L5 colonies. To have him know utter failure in the instant before I struck him down… well, we can't get everything we want in life, I guess. His time will come soon enough…_

For now he could be content with the knowledge that the legendary Demon Lord of Avalon would be watching this battle helplessly from Orb. It would be most amusing to see the look on his face when the broadcasts showed the Coordinator colonies reduced to thermonuclear ashes, but alas that was a luxury he would not be able to indulge in. In the meanwhile he would continue to enjoy himself by butchering any Coordinator soldier that came across his path, and in this environment he certainly did not lack for targets. He had no escort, but he did not need one; he was a force unto himself, and the last thing he wanted was friendly units getting in the way.

Opening up with his four gunbarrel-drones again, he smiled as a trio of ZAKU Warriors turned into fireballs. Raising his beam rifle, he shot a ZAKU Phantom through the cockpit before shredding a GuAIZ-R with a salvo from his linear guns. A pair of Slash ZAKU Warriors rushed him, their beam axes at the ready, but Nazara was already moving to counter them. Deflecting the opening strike from the first unit before gutting it with his beam saber, he whirled around and blocked a slash from the second unit before slicing it in half.

His console beeped, and he saw the face of Admiral Wallace appear in the bottom right corner of his monitor. "Colonel Nazara, perhaps you should not venture so far forward? Your loss here would be most detrimental to the war effort; a man with your leadership responsibilities should not put himself at such risk."

Nazara chuckled while shooting down a pair of ZAKUs with his gunbarrel-drones. "What's the matter, Admiral? If I didn't know better I'd say that you were _worried _about me!"

"You are a valuable asset," the Admiral replied, "No other pilot in our ranks is capable of fighting Wing Zero one on one. You are a strategic resource that cannot be lost here!"

"Are those your words or Djibril's that I'm hearing?" Nazara quipped while picking off another hostile contact with his beam rifle, "Admiral, if you try to tell me what role I should play in battle again, I'm going to throw you out the airlock the next time I see you. Is that clear?"

The Admiral gulped. "Quite so, Colonel."

"Good," said Nazara before blasting a GuAIZ-R with his linear guns, "Now do me a favor; do not contact me again until we're ready to play our trump card. Understood?"

Wallace nodded. "Yes, Colonel."

"And tell Djibril that I'll fight however I damn well please," Nazara added, "If he wants to judge me he'll have to try his hand at mobile suit combat first. I'll take his orders, but he can take whatever pathetic criticism he has and shove it right up his ass. Nosferatu, out!"

_Now_, he thought as he surveyed the battlefield, _where were we? Oh, yes…_

_ …a glorious slaughterhouse!_

….

Sitting at the back of the massive war room in ZAFT HQ, Durandal leaned forward in his chair, peering closely at one of the myriad screens on the far wall. The opening battle of the war remained in full swing, and to his eyes it appeared that neither side had gained the upper hand.

"How awful…" his aide Rachael whispered, "So much death…"

_Indeed_, he thought grimly, _and there will be plenty more of it before this day is done._

He had been here since the battle had begun, staying more or less out of the way while his military handled their gruesome task. Both Grand Admiral Rainer Brinkmann and Admiral Valter Girardelli were out with the armada itself; Rainer had transferred to the flagship _Gondwana _shortly before the fighting had started, while Valter was on the _Hel_-class cruiser _Balder_. Admiral Jaime Delgado, while not an active commander in the fleet engagement, was also out there, albeit at the battle's edge aboard the destroyer _Johannes Bosscha_, waiting patiently for the order to deploy ZAFT's defensive ace in the whole. The rest of the Defense Council members occupied various spots of this chamber, analyzing incoming data and occasionally issuing instructions to their aides.

Durandal was not the only member of ZAFT's executive governing body to be in attendance. The rest of the Supreme Council was here, at his invitation. It was mostly a symbolic gesture; they had absolutely no role to play in the ongoing hostilities, after all. However, Durandal still found it enlightening to have his fellow Council members in a place where he could observe their reactions to the battle raging on L5's doorstep. It was an opportunity to see how they fared under pressures that were outside what they were used to dealing with on a daily basis. All their power did them no good here; this chamber was the realm of the military, not the politicians. How they conducted themselves in an environment where their authority was of little value was of genuine interest for Durandal; it would be of great value to gain further insights into the minds of his colleagues and judge which ones would be the most useful for his plans going forward from here.

As of right now, the experience was proving to be rather amusing. A handful of his colleagues retained a solemn bearing, watching in stoic silence as the gargantuan fleet brawl played out on the screens before them. Several other, however, were noticeably fidgeting, although whether it was from simple fear or agitation at their lack of influence over the current situation was up for debate. Durandal took careful note of each Councilor's demeanor; the knowledge he would gain from these covert observations could prove most useful later on.

_Are you still alive out there, Athrun Zala?_, he mused, _How does it feel to once again be fighting under the flag of ZAFT? Will this experience serve to bind you completely to my cause, or will you bear further scrutiny and testing after this battle is over? One way or another, we shall find out soon enough…_

Of course, he was unable to guarantee that Athrun Zala would survive this battle, and Durandal supposed that was a microcosm of his overall dilemma. As Supreme Council Chairman he had a considerable ability to influence geopolitical events; indeed, one could easily make the case that his actions had helped set the stage for the conflagration now raging on L5's doorstep. However, there was a key distinction between _influence _and _control_. He could guide events to a certain extent, but even one well versed in the arts of long-term planning and manipulation was only capable of so much. Sometimes there were situations that he couldn't approach with his typical chess-play approach, setting up the pieces and moving them in the appropriate direction. There were some scenarios where he had to take on the mindset of a gambler; in the end, all he could do was place his bet and throw the dice.

This battle was a perfect example of that. A clash like this _was _necessary for Durandal's broader vision to come into being, but hostilities had come about much sooner than he had originally planned on. The raid at Armory One and the Break The World Incident had forced a rapid acceleration of his agenda; indeed, he had been hoping for hostilities to at least be delayed until he had more than one nuclear countermeasure such as the Neutron Stampeder at his disposal. Now the defense of both the PLANTs and his great vision hinged in large part on an experimental device, and despite the promising data gained from smaller-scale trials there was no guarantee that the countermeasure would be able to stand against the kind of mass nuclear volley that the Defense Council was anticipating the Earth Alliance would throw at the colonies sooner or later. The device was an unusual combination, at least in Durandal's mind, of both a chess piece and a roulette ball. He could consider his bet all he wanted before placing it, but in the end he would only get one spin of the wheel. These were the highest stakes yet in his career, and if things fell apart now there was no contingency waiting in the wings; his fate would be the same as that of his fellow citizens.

In truth, Durandal felt no small measure of fear at the very real prospect of his demise this day should the defenses fail. However, at the same time…

…he was more excited now than he'd ever been before in his life.

Oftentimes he would have a mental image of himself sitting down at a table, a chessboard set out before him. Every piece had its function and place, and there were only a certain amount of moves that could be made. The player across the board would vary; some days it would be the Atlantic Federation and the broader Earth Alliance, while others it would actually be the Supreme Council and his other internal obstacles. However, today he had a very different mental image. This time, he saw himself sitting down at a poker table, with the party across from him being the Earth Alliance military. He envisioned his hand, his opponent sitting across from him, and the cards that were already laid down on the table. Two were already turned over; their faces clear to the players. One remained facedown, and that was the card that the entire contest now hinged upon.

Would it be his undoing?

Would it be his triumph?

He would find out in due time.

….

"That's five," said Cipher as he withdrew his beam sword from the gut of another Juggernaut, pulling back just before the mobile armor exploded, "Can they offer _anything_ better than this?"

If his partner heard him he did not reply, but Galm One didn't care; he was venting his frustration rather than seeking input. He had been hoping for so much more than the foes he was fighting now. The battle was large enough, to be sure, but the opposing combatants were seriously lacking in quality.

If there was an absence of worthy adversaries out here it was certainly not for lack of trying on the Galm Team's part to seek them out. The legendary mercenary duo was at the forefront of ZAFT's defensive efforts, leaving a swath of mauled mobile suits and shattered assault mobile armors in their wake. With the casualties they were inflicting upon the enemy any aces in the Alliance's ranks should've been drawn to them by now, but none of their opposing number came close to the high standards Cipher set for his adversaries.

_Perhaps they're too high_, he mused bitterly as he ripped a Windam apart with his heat rod, _Ever since Jachin Due, I've been looking for a fight that could match the same intensity as that final duel. I will not dispute the stakes inherent in this engagement, but I cannot deny a certain… disappointment._

If his wingman had similar complaints he was not voicing them. Galm Two was methodically blasting away at any mobile suit that dared to approach them. Precise and powerful streams of crimson energy reduced incoming machines to cinders and forced others to exercise greater caution in their attacks on the mercenaries. The fear that the Galm Team inspired in their enemies was certainly useful, but the restraint it put on their adversaries only added to Cipher's sense of dissatisfaction. He wanted to face an enemy that could completely brush aside that fear and make him truly fight for his life, and the only man who had ever been able to accomplish that was far away from this battlefield.

"Got a nice, fat warship up ahead," said Pixy as he picked off a Dagger L, "What do you say, buddy? Shall we start hunting big game now?"

It didn't take long for Cipher to find the target his companion had designated; a _Drake_-class escort ship that by some miracle had yet to be touched by the monsoons of fire the two armadas were throwing at each other. The vessel hardly qualified as 'big game' as far as Cipher was concerned, but adding a warship or two to their kill count could only help the Galm Team's paycheck for this fight.

He nodded as he shredded a Dagger L with a barrage of small emerald particle beams. "Very well. Let's go."

Cutting down the few mobile suits that stood between them and their target, Cipher and Pixy were on the escort ship before its crew knew what hit them. Streams of 75mm shells flew from its Vulcan cannons, but the fire was so sloppy that the veteran dogs of war had no trouble evading them. Cipher struck first, slicing into the ventral bow turret with his sword before going topside and repeating the process with the weapon mounted in front of the bridge. Deprived of two thirds of its close-range anti-air armaments, it was a simply matter for Pixy to line up a shot and blast the bridge with his Orthros cannon.

"One down," said Pixy, "and plenty more to go."

Cipher nodded as he designated another target, this time a _Typhoon_-class destroyer. "Cover me."

"Copy that," Pixy replied before blowing away a Dagger L.

The black warship wasted no time in opening up on the mercenary duo. Galm One and Two came in from on high, and the destroyer met them with machinegun fire, anti-air missiles, and particle beams from its topside turrets. It was a more formidable spread than what the _Drake_-class escort ship they had just wasted was capable of dishing out, but it was still insufficient to save the vessel from the wrath of the Galm Team.

Pixy opened up their attack, taking out the beam turret behind the destroyer's bridge with his Orthros cannon. Cipher followed up with a barrage of emerald beams from his Draupnir cannons, aimed not at the warship itself but at a volley of missiles it had launched at them. The warheads were ripped apart by the precise fire, clearing the way for the Galm Team to finish off their target. Pixy took another shot with his heavy cannon, and this time it was the beam turret in front of the bridge that went up in flames. Diving in at full speed, Cipher delivered the finishing, cleaving the bridge in two with his beam sword.

"All right!" cheered Pixy as the destroyer succumbed to its wounds, "Nice one!"

Cipher was indifferent; taking down the destroyer had hardy been more difficult than their earlier crushing of the escort ship. Capital ships didn't really qualify as interesting targets as far as Cipher was concerned; they might be able to take more damage than mobile suits, but they were much easier to hit. Still, he knew that the Chairman would approve of them taking down as many as they could today, so he and his wingman would play their role accordingly.

The question now was whether they should push further ahead or hold the line. Their assignment was actually defensive in nature, and to move too far forward would cut them off from friendly support. Galm Team was formidable even if their current mobile suits weren't of the same caliber as those they'd wielded in the final battle of the last war, but they were not invincible. What the enemy pilots apparently lacked for in skill they could easily make up for in sheer numbers, and that wasn't factoring in the guns and missiles of the opposing capital ships. Moving too far into the enemy's ranks would make them vulnerable to crossfire from the anti-air weapons of multiple vessels, and without Phase Shift Armor it would be just a matter of time before they started taking serious damage.

_Advance or hold_, he mused as he sliced a Dagger L in half, _that is the question. So what will it be?_

He found his answer at the edge of his sensors. His scopes were picking up a unit with power readings that were quite distinctive, even in this chaotic battlefield; it had a nuclear reactor. Reorienting himself, Cipher quickly found the target and zeroed in on it. The unit was a violet mobile suit, and Galm One could instantly tell that it had Phase Shift Armor. With its four gunbarrel-drones, twin linear guns, beam rifle and beam saber it was ripping a path of destruction through the ranks of ZAFT's regular mobile suit squadrons. The unit was completely unsupported, and to Cipher that meant only one thing; the pilot had some skill, more so than any of the soldiers he'd fought so far today. They would have to backtrack a bit to reach their target, but Cipher was fine with that if it meant he might finally have an interesting fight today.

"I have our next target," he said with a smirk as he transmitted the data to his wingman, "What do you say?

Pixy chuckled as he shot down a Windam. "Well, well… that's an interesting design. Nuclear powered, too… this one might actually be a challenge. I'm game if you are, buddy."

Cipher nodded, his eyes narrowing. "I am. There's no official name for this thing on file yet, so I'm designating it Alpha One for now. Let's get him."

….

Nazara smiled as he impaled a Blaze ZAKU Phantom with his beam saber. "Yes, that's it! Burn, you disgusting vermin. Burn with the rest of your kind!"

He was continuing to carve his way through the opposition like a wrathful demon, and nothing the Coordinators could throw at him had so much as slowed him down. Sure, a handful of pilots had shown some small amount of skill, but they were but mere insects when compared to the adversary he _really _wanted to fight.

_I've survived four fights against Heero Yuy_, he thought as he picked off a Gunner ZAKU Warrior with his beam rifle, _Compared to him, you rats are nothing!_

It was strange to pay such a compliment to a foe that he so deeply despised, but it was true nonetheless. As deep as the hatred he had built up over the past two years for the Demon Lord of Avalon had grown, Nazara could grudgingly admit a level of respect for the young man he considered to be his arch-nemesis. It was easy for people to just chalk up the reputation of Heero Yuy as due to nothing more than the power of his incredibly advanced mobile suit, but the Colonel knew that technology and brute force could only carry a pilot so far. The young man had undoubtedly _earned _the level of admiration, dread, and loathing that his name invoked depending on where one stood in the Earth Sphere's deadly geopolitics. Compared to the levels of dominance and skill he'd displayed in every single one of his engagements since he first made his debut on the battlefield over two years ago, ZAFT's rank and file could never hope to match up.

However, ZAFT had more than their 'rank and file' troops fighting on this battlefield today…

…and Nazara could not help but smile as he checked his sensors and saw who was coming his way.

The pair of mobile suits approaching him at top speed might've been different models from what this pair of warriors had wielded in the last war, but their paintjobs and emblems were unmistakable.

_There was no official word after Jachin Due_, he thought as he blasted a Slash ZAKU Warrior with his linear guns, _but there were rumors amongst the intelligence community that they'd survived the final battle of the last war. How wonderful to see that the rumors were true!_

He chuckled as he gunned his engines, rushing to meet his new foes head-on. Heero Yuy might not be on this battlefield but he'd found the next best thing.

"Welcome back to the battlefield, Galm Team," he said with a grin, "Let's see if your skills are as sharp now as they were two years ago!"

….

**Start "Rush"**

Pixy's eyes narrowed as the nuclear powered mobile suit charged at them, deploying its gunbarrel-drones in preparation for an attack. "Here we go."

The Gunner ZAKU Warrior wouldn't do well in a head-to-head fight with a machine like this; it was far outclassed in mobility, versatility and protection. Pixy's only advantages would be experience, firepower, and the fact that he wasn't fighting alone.

"I'll try to keep his attention on me," said Cipher, "Fire whenever you get an opening."

Pixy nodded. "Copy that. Watch yourself, buddy."

"You too," Cipher replied, "I'm going in."

Galm Two cut back on his thrusters as his flight lead moved to engage. The hostile contact wasted no time in opening fire, filling space with particle beams and linear gun rounds. Pixy hissed as he tried to evade the barrage, taking one of the beams on his ZAKU's shield; this foe was a much better shot than the previous enemies they'd engaged in this battle so far.

_Well_, he thought, _at least they'll keep us on our toes._

Braking to the left as Cipher went right up the middle, Pixy took aim with his Orthros cannon and opened up. Alpha One slipped to the right to dodge the shot, but its evasion gave Cipher the opening he needed to finish closing the gap, and he made a diagonal slash with his beam sword that forced the enemy onto the defensive. The bogey parried Galm One's attack, but it was unable to immediately counter since Cipher followed up that strike with a lash from one of his heat rods. Alpha One dived to avoid getting caught by the whip, and it was finally able to strike back with another barrage from its gunbarrel-drones.

As Cipher danced through the rain of emerald fire, Pixy took another shot with his Orthros cannon. Once again, Alpha One was able to dodge the crimson energy beam, but Galm Two's attack did help take some of the heat off of his flight lead. Taking advantage of the breathing room, Cipher charged in again, opening fire with his Draupnir cannons and keeping the target on the defensive.

_This guy's good_, he thought as he took another shot, only for the enemy to evade this blast as well, _Able to manage the drones _and _keep from getting hit by either of us so far… he's definitely a cut above the cannon fodder we've been dealing with up until now._

Alpha One wasn't taking Pixy's potshots lying down. The hostile gunned its engines, outpacing Cipher's GOUF Ignited and buying itself enough room to open up on Galm Two with everything it had. Forced onto the defensive, Pixy was all over the map as a frantically worked to evade the incoming fire. For a moment he feared that Alpha One would be able to charge in and attack him up close, but the enemy wasn't able to advance; Cipher was attacking from below, opening up with his Draupnir cannons and interrupting the barrage. Alpha One turned back towards Pixy's flight lead and rushed forward, thrusting forward with its beam saber. Cipher was able to deflect the attack and strike back with his heat rod, but the enemy was able to slip to the right and avoid the whip.

Now that he had some breathing room again, Pixy quickly took aim and opened up with his cannon. Crimson fire flashed across the void, but Alpha One was able to dive and avoid taking the hit. The shot did give Cipher a chance to press his assault, but only for a moment; a salvo from the target's linear guns forced him to take evasive action, which gave their foe a chance to go onto the offensive.

Alpha One didn't waste any time; it moved on Cipher hard, all weapons blazing. Pixy did what he could to lay down supporting fire, but the enemy was moving on his flight lead with an almost single-minded determination. The violet mobile suit managed to evade Pixy's attacks without losing any of its forward momentum, and as Cipher was working to stay one step ahead of Alpha One's barrage the advanced machine closed to melee range and raised its beam saber, ready to cut the GOUF Ignited in half.

Of course, Cipher wasn't about to go down that easily. Pixy watched as his flight lead brought up his beam sword to meet the attack before lashing out with his heat rod. The enemy smoothly slipped to the left to avoid the whip before coming back in for another exchange of blades. Galm Two was amazed at how quick the two combatants were; he couldn't take any shots now without risking a hit to his flight lead.

_Well_, he thought as he saw a group of Windams moving in on the duel, _I guess I'd better make myself useful. At the very least I should be able to keep the cannon fodder from interfering…_

Switching targets, he zeroed in on the lead Windam and opened up, blowing it to bits with his Orthros cannon. The rest of the incoming mobile suits scattered and adjusted their heading; now they were coming right for him.

Pixy smirked as he lined up his next shot. "Sorry, but that party's invitation only. If you pricks want in, you'll have to deal with me first!"

He didn't bother waiting for a reply. Sighting in on his next target, he opened fire, nailing the Windam right in the cockpit. The remaining machines moved on him as fast as they could, and for the first time in the battle Pixy brought out and activated his beam tomahawk.

_These things are considerably faster than Dagger Ls_, he thought as he prepared for close-quarters-combat, _I've been relying on my buddy to deal with the ones that try to get in close for a while now, so I might be a little rusty at this…_

Bringing his axe up, he managed to block a vertical strike from the closest Windam. He then gunned his engines, hitting the hostile with a tackle and pushing it back, giving himself just enough room to blow it away with his cannon. Pixy didn't have time to celebrate; another Windam was already moving on him, forcing him to whirl around and deflect a slash from his new foe before hacking right into its cockpit.

Two more hostiles were closing fast, and Pixy barely had enough time to respond. Throwing his thrusters into reverse, he managed to buy himself just enough space to shoot down the lead Windam with his Orthros cannon, but the second one was still able to get into beam saber range. He hastily deflected a horizontal slash before striking back, cutting the unit down with his axe.

Pixy breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the area was temporarily clear. "All right. Time to get my ass back to the main event."

Cipher had managed to hold his own in Pixy's brief absence, but Galm Two could tell that his flight lead was hard pressed to continue defending himself. It was hard to say if Alpha One had him on the ropes, but at the very least the enemy had the initiative and seemed intent on keeping it. Pixy raised his cannon and sighted in on his target, determined to give his friend the chance he needed to turn things around.

"Don't forget about me, asshole!" he growled as he opened fire.

Alpha One dived to avoid the crimson blast, but the shot seemed to put the enemy temporarily off balance. Cipher immediately seized the opening and rushed in, firing his Draupnir cannons before lashing out with his heat rod. Alpha One continued to pull back to avoid getting hit, but Galm One pressed his assault, lunging forward with his beam sword and thrusting right at the enemy's cockpit. The hostile managed to deflect the strike, but before they could counter Pixy took another shot, and while it didn't connect it did help keep Alpha One on the back foot.

_Not sure if this guy's as good as Heero Yuy, but he's putting up one hell of a fight_, he thought as he watched Cipher exchange blade strikes with the enemy, _Then again, it might just be that we're working harder to make up for the shortcomings of our mobile suits. I wonder if this guy would've lasted this long without a nuclear powered machine…_

He shook his head. That kind of speculation had no place in this fight. More importantly, it just smacked of excuse making, and Pixy preferred to avoid that if possible. In the end he supposed it didn't really matter if things would be different if their foe had a less advanced unit or if the Galm Team were wielding the units ZAFT was secretly developing for them. Their enemy was making them work for their paycheck, and that was what counted.

He smirked as he took another shot at his target. For the first time in over two years, he felt _alive _again. The adrenaline was truly pumping through his veins now that he and his flight lead were up against an adversary that was making them earn their keep. This was why he'd chosen the life of a dog of war…

…and he knew that Cipher felt the same way.

**End "Rush"**

….

The _Gondwana _rumbled as it took another hit, but Grand Admiral Brinkmann was unconcerned. The leviathan of a carrier was not just the largest ship in ZAFT's fleet; it was by far the toughest. The particle beams and missiles that had hit it so far this battle would not be enough to threaten it; only a concentrated barrage from conventional weaponry would be able to bring the behemoth down.

The carrier's Captain did not seem overly worried about the recent impact either, but then again nothing in this battle so far had seemed to faze her. A rather stern and imposing woman with close-cut blonde hair and blue-gray eyes, Joyce Allen was a veteran of the last war and one of ZAFT's most accomplished front line officers. By the time the Bloody Valentine War had gotten underway the First Generation Coordinator had already been made one of the first female Captains of ZAFT's _Nazca_-class destroyers, and she'd had nowhere to go but up over the course of the conflict. Her name had come up multiple times for promotion to the rank of Admiral after the reorganization of ZAFT's hierarchy, but each time she had turned down advancement, preferring to remain a Captain of a warship. As an alternate promotion of sorts, she had been transferred by Grand Admiral Brinkmann himself to the _Gondwana_, and it was a decision that was paying off now. She had a reputation for keeping a level head while under fire, and that was a vital quality to have in a fight like this when the stakes were so high.

"Report," said the Captain, her tone utterly calm and in control.

"No penetration from impact reported," the damage control officer responded, "We're in one piece, ma'am."

Joyce nodded. "Good."

"I'm surprised they're not hitting us harder," said Brinkmann, his eyes narrowing as he watched the battle continue to unfold out the forward viewport, "We're the largest target on the field, after all."

"Permission to speak freely, Grand Admiral?" said Joyce.

Brinkmann nodded. "It's your ship, Captain; by all means."

"I do not believe that the Earth Alliance forces are overly concerned with the _Gondwana _at this point in the battle," she said, "Based on their firing patterns, they appear to be concentrating on opening up breaches in our ranks, and that can be accomplished much easier by hitting our standard front line warships instead of vessels like this one or the _Orizaba_-class ships. They mean to create lanes through which they can strike the colonies directly; we are a secondary target at best right now."

Her analysis was spot on. Brinkmann had no doubt that the Earth forces would make a serious effort to take down the carrier eventually, but right now they seemed focused on punching through ZAFT's lines so they could take a shot at the PLANTs. This was more or less how he and his fellow Defense Council members had anticipated the battle would play out; the big question was when the Alliance armada would bring out its trump card.

_As of right now, we're about even_, he thought grimly as he checked the small monitor mounted on the arm of his chair, _Losses for both sides stand at about twenty-five percent, although we still have reserves that we can bring into play. From the scouts' reports it appears that the Earth Alliance did not marshal reserve battle groups for this fight, so if it remains a contest of attrition we can continue to hold our own. I highly doubt that's the endgame the enemy commanders have in mind, though…_

"Captain!" yelled one of the communications officers, "Transmission coming in from Aprilius One! It's the Chairman!"

Joyce nodded at the Grand Admiral. "That's likely for you."

"Patch it through to my console," Brinkmann replied.

Turning to his personal monitor, he saw Durandal's face appear on the screen a few seconds later. "Grand Admiral, what is your status?"

"The _Gondwana _remains in one piece," he said, "and the defenses are holding. There is still no sign that the enemy is mobilizing their ace in the hole, but that could change at any moment."

The Chairman nodded. "I understand. In that case, I shall not trouble you further. Our fates are in your hands, Grand Admiral. Aprilius One, out."

_At least he kept it short_, thought Brinkmann as he returned his attention to the battle, _I doubt another Council member would've been so considerate of the demands we face out here…_

Tapping a few keys on his personal console, he brought up an image of the Alliance command ship _Victory_. Like the _Gondwana _it appeared to have taken a few hits, but the vessel was intact and did not seem to be in danger of falling anytime soon. If the intelligence reports were accurate, then Brinkmann's opposite number today was Atlantic Federation Admiral Gregory Wallace. The man didn't have much of a reputation; he was known as a by-the-book officer with little sense of creativity or innovation on the battlefield. That was good news as far as Brinkmann was concerned; if Wallace remained true to form then there wouldn't be any nasty surprises in store for ZAFT as the battle continued.

Then again, Brinkmann wasn't exactly making a display of outside-the-box thinking with his fleet deployment either. The mission objective was simple; hold the line and repel the enemy assault at all costs. ZAFT's armada was arrayed to accomplish that objective, and while it was fighting well it was more or less a brute force affair. There was no finesses here; this was simply two massive fleets slugging it out. Many had died already, and more lives would be lost before this battle finally came to an end.

_If Admiral Delgado's new toy does not work, then this will have all been for nothing_, he thought, _I hate this. In the end, it all comes down to a device that's only been tested under controlled circumstances. Brilliant gamblers or desperate fools; history will judge us one way or the other depending on the outcome here today. Which will it be?_

_ When will the moment of truth finally arrive?_

….

_Damn it_, thought Athrun as he shot down a Dagger L, _There's just no end to these guys!_

He'd forgotten what it was like to take part in a prolonged and large scale engagement like this. The raid on Armory One, the skirmish in the Debris Belt and the Break The World Incident had all been relatively contained fights compared to the clash of armadas that he was caught up in now. He still had enough energy to fight on, but there was no denying that he was definitely working up a sweat in this battle.

It was at a time like this that Athrun was grateful for all the innovations and advancements that ZAFT had made in mobile suit technology in the two years since the end of the last war. In particular, the fact that the ZAKU Phantom's beam rifle used energy clips instead of drawing power directly from the unit's batteries was a lifesaver; with the way he'd been fighting he would've had to return to the carrier to recharge his machine by now if he'd been using his old Aegis. That the unit had four extra energy clips instead of the two carried by the regular ZAKU Warrior was a plus; Athrun had just swapped out his second clip, but thanks to the reserve clips he still had plenty of juice to feed his rifle before he had to worry about pulling back to resupply.

_The extra shield comes in handy too_, he mused as a missile from a Windam hit the barrier mounted on the ZAKU Phantom's right shoulder, _I'd be dead without it several times over by now…_

Picking off his attacker with his beam rifle, Athrun quickly whirled around to intercept a beam saber strike from another Windam. Deflecting the slash with his beam tomahawk, he swiftly countered and chopped clean through the Alliance mobile suit's cockpit. Diving to avoid beam rifle fire from a third Windam, Athrun immediately reoriented his ZAKU Phantom and sent a volley his opponent's way, ripping the machine apart.

"You doing okay over there?" asked Heine as he picked off a Dagger L with his beam rifle.

Athrun nodded while shooting down another Windam. "I'm fine. You?"

"Still alive," Heine replied as he cut a Dagger L in half with his axe, "That's enough for now."

Athrun couldn't argue with that. The fighting was absolutely ferocious, and from the looks of things it wouldn't be dying down anytime soon. Both armadas had taken a hell of a beating, but they were still hammering away at each other with every weapon that they could bring to bear. The same went for the opposing mobile suit squadrons; neither side was giving an inch in what was the fiercest brawl Athrun had been involved in since the last war. Even if ZAFT emerged victorious today it would no doubt spend quite some time licking its wounds.

_And if the Alliance comes out on top_, thought Athrun grimly as he picked off a Dagger L, _then we won't have any wounds to lick because we'll all be dead…_

There'd been no offer of surrender given before the opening shots had been fired, and no such transmission had been issued since then either. The Earth forces seemed intent on making this a fight to the finish, and with ZAFT's back against the wall the Coordinator armed forces were making them pay in blood for every meter that they tried to advance. Even if ZAFT managed to repulse the attack, such a battle was an ugly omen for how the broader war might shake out.

It was at a time like this that Athrun was grateful his father was dead and his followers reduced to the fringes of political life. Chairman Durandal might've been willing to use some underhanded methods in his rule, but he had also displayed a genuine commitment to not only protecting the PLANTs but restoring peace to a divided world. Whatever path he intended to walk, it was not the dark and bloody road of Patrick Zala. ZAFT's victory in this war would not mean genocide; it would mean peace, however hard the fighting to achieve it might be.

_If he'd been in charge during the last war_, Athrun mused as he cut down a Windam with his beam tomahawk, _I don't think I would've defected. This is the ZAFT that I thought I was joining after the Bloody Valentine Tragedy; this is the ZAFT that I _wanted _to fight for._

He couldn't change the past, no matter how much he might want to, but even in the midst of such brutal fighting he had renewed hope for a better future. If the defenses held and the assault was repelled, Durandal's administration could demonstrate how ZAFT _should've _fought the last war. The Coordinator armed forces would not descend into atrocity and barbarism, but would fight with dignity and honor. They would defend their homeland and their broader place in the Earth Sphere without becoming the monsters that they had sworn to fight against.

It was a vision of ZAFT that Athrun was determined to make a reality, and this battle was the seed of that. _This _was what he could accomplish by fighting for the PLANTs instead of staying with Terminal; he could work from the inside to help keep the Coordinator armed forces on the right path and prevent them from descending into the butchery that defined his father's legacy. If he managed to survive this battle and passed Durandal's trial by fire Athrun was sure that he would be given a position of greater responsibility, and he intended to use that not only to help end the war and bring peace to the Earth Sphere but to turn ZAFT into a model fighting force, an example of a just military that could maintain security for its people without condemning millions to slaughter.

Of course, first he had to make it through this fight in one piece, and that was _far _from a guaranteed outcome in a brawl like this.

Heine was moving forward, and Athrun gunned his engines to keep pace with him. A squadron of Windams was rushing to meet them, and his flight lead wasted no time in opening up with his beam rifle. Athrun joined him, and they were rewarded by two of the enemy machines going up in flames. The rest scattered but continued to advance; they would be on them in moments. The Blaze Packs meant that Athrun and Heine's ZAKU Phantoms would be much better suited to taking on the new Alliance machines than other ZAFT models on the field, but the Windams had already proven to be tough foes in a dogfight. Athrun doubted that these particular units would be the exception to the rule.

His flight lead met the first unit head-on, blocking a diagonal slash on his beam tomahawk before carving into his foe. Athrun raised his axe to block a vertical chop from another Windam before pushing forward and slamming his ZAKU Phantom's left shoulder and shield into the machine. Before his opponent could react, Athrun followed up with a downward slash that ripped the Alliance mobile suit apart. As the enemy exploded Athrun saw Heine engage another Windam, but one more machine was moving in from his flight lead's right flank; Heine wouldn't be able to take both of them simultaneously.

Hitting the thrusters, Athrun rocketed forward and intercepted the flanking Windam while Heine engaged the other machine. He took a swing with his beam tomahawk, only for the Windam to pull back and fire its shield-mounted missile. Fortunately, Athrun was able to take the hit on his right shoulder shield before counterattacking with a horizontal slash that sliced the Windam in half. For his part, Heine had already hacked his attacker to flaming pieces.

"Thanks for the support," said his flight lead.

Athrun nodded. "Anytime."

"We're getting too far forward again," said Heine as he shot down another Windam, "We should pull back a bit."

Heine was right. Looking around, Athrun could see that he and his flight lead had advanced to the very edge of ZAFT's front ranks. If they continued to move forwards at this rate they would end up amidst the Alliance's capital ships, and while the two of them were definitely capable of taking on the larger vessels they would also be extremely vulnerable to crossfire. Once again Athrun had to remind himself that he wasn't piloting the Justice today; the Blaze ZAKU Phantom was a solid machine, but he needed to be much more careful using it than he would have with his old mobile suit.

"Okay," said Athrun, picking off a Dagger L, "I'll cover you."

The two of them gradually fell back, laying down volleys of emerald particle beams to keep any pursuers at bay. In this they were essentially mirroring the actions of other ZAFT mobile suit squadrons in what had become a familiar pattern displayed during this battle.

At this point, the engagement could be characterized as a series of pulses; surges of advance and retreat on both sides. One groups' mobile suits would make headway, but as the opposing side fell back the attackers would come under the guns of the defending capital ships and become vulnerable to overlapping fields of fire. This would prompt the advancing side to pull back since the defending side still had enough mobile suits left to cover their warships. This back-and-forth sequence between the Earth Alliance and ZAFT had played out several times now, and with each reiteration the losses taken by both sides continued to mount. Soon one side or the other would be able to sustain their advance to the point that their mobile suits could begin tearing into the capital ships in earnest, and when that happened it would signal that the tide of the battle had decisively turned.

_Then again_, thought Athrun as he shot down another Dagger L, _we might not get to that point. If the Alliance really is packing nukes then they've got to be readying them for launch by now; the battle's gone on more than long enough for that. Then the only question becomes when they'll make their move…_

Both sides mobile suits and capital ships were taking a beating, and at a fairly even rate too. However, the Alliance's nuclear weapons were likely kept in the warships at the heart of their armada, and that core group remained more or less intact. If ZAFT had anti-nuke countermeasures deployed on this battlefield Athrun had seen no sign of them yet. With the way things were down on the surface he knew that Terminal wouldn't come flying in to the rescue; if Durandal's forces did not have a trump card to play when the time came, then Athrun would have a front row seat to the genocide of his people.

"That's not going to happen," he muttered.

"Did you say something?" asked Heine.

Athrun shook his head, mentally cursing the fact that the channel he shared with his flight lead had still been open. "It's nothing."

There was a moment of skeptical silence before Heine spoke again. "All right, then. Keep it together; it'd be a shame to lose it and die here."

Athrun nodded as he shot down an incoming Windam. "Trust me; I don't plan on going down today."

Heine chuckled as he picked off a Dagger L. "Glad to hear it. Now, let's send these guys packing!"

"Copy that," Athrun replied.

….

_Marvelous_, thought Nazara as he evaded another blast from Galm Two's Orthros cannon, _Absolutely marvelous! Galm Team, you _more _than live up to your reputation. A pity that you're Coordinators; Phantom Pain could use pilots of your caliber._

His two adversaries might be flying inferior machines, but that in no way lessened the threat that they posed. Their strategy was clear; each pilot would play to the strengths of their machines, and this was the same doctrine that they'd demonstrated in the last war. It was quite simple, but Nazara knew that sometimes simple was the best way to go, and the Galm Team was living proof of that. Galm One was almost constantly in his face, weaving through the fire from his gunbarrel-drones to cross swords with him, while Galm Two hung back and waited for openings to take shots with his Gunner ZAKU Warrior's heavy cannon. At the same time, Galm Two also acted as a bouncer of sorts, keeping any other Alliance machines from entering the fray. Nazara didn't mind that; in fact, he was actually quite happy to have the mercenary duo all to himself.

He opened up on Galm One with everything he had, but once again the dog of war was able to stay one step ahead of the particle beams and linear slugs that he sent his way. Bringing up his beam saber to deflect a slash from Cipher's sword, he was forced to dive to avoid a follow-up strike from his adversary's heat rod. As he did so Galm Two struck again, but Nazara was able to evade the stream of crimson death once again. Putting some distance between himself and Galm One, the Colonel fired a barrage at Galm Two with his gunbarrel-drones, momentarily putting Solo Wing Pixy on the defensive.

_This is certainly one way to put the Nosferatu through its paces_, he mused as he opened up on Galm One with his beam rifle, _It will be quite interesting to study the combat data once this battle is over._

The hour of reckoning would soon be at hand. Losses for both fleets were rapidly mounting, and if Nazara had to hazard a guess he would say that the casualties had passed the thirty percent mark. Noticeable gaps were beginning to appear in the Coordinator lines, but they were not yet at the point where Nazara was comfortable in ordering a full nuclear strike. The brawl would have to drag on a little while longer, but the Colonel wasn't in any particular hurry; he was quite content to continue his dance with the legendary hellhounds.

He rushed towards Galm Two in an effort to take the long-range fighter out of the picture. The Gunner ZAKU Warrior fell back, but the machine didn't stand a chance at outpacing the Nosferatu. As it tried to keep some distance between itself and the Colonel's mobile suit it opened up with its Orthros cannon, but the weapon's rate of fire was too slow to make it effective against a swift target like the Nosferatu.

"It's been fun, Solo Wing Pixy," he said as he brought all his guns to bear on Galm Two, "but I'm afraid that your part in this fight is over!"

He opened up with everything he had. Galm Two had already moved to put the Gunner ZAKU Warrior's shield between it and the barrage, but there was no way the barrier could provide complete coverage. A particle beam blew the mobile suit's right leg off at the knee, while a linear round grazed the torso. No critical hits were scored, but Nazara had drawn first blood nonetheless, and he was eager for more.

Unfortunately for him, the other half of the legendary mercenary duo had other ideas. Charging in from behind, Galm One let fly with a hail of small emerald bolts from his unit's forearm cannons, forcing Nazara to break off his attack on Galm Two. As swift as the Nosferatu was, it didn't escape the barrage completely unscathed; one of the darts of energy hit the left linear gun, putting it out of commission.

Nazara smirked as he turned to face Galm Team's formidable flight lead. "Nicely done. It'd be boring if I made it through this fight without a scratch. Let's see what else you've got!"

He opened up with his remaining weapons as Cipher rushed in for close-quarters-combat. Bringing his beam saber up to deflect a slash from Galm One's sword, Nazara threw his thrusters in reverse before taking a quick shot with his beam rifle. The emerald particle beam impacted the hostile mobile suit's left leg just below the torso, mauling the mechanical limb but still leaving the machine more than capable of combat.

_One hit apiece_, he mused as he dodged a crimson blast from Galm Two, _Looks like the score's even._

Ignoring Galm Two, Nazara continued to concentrate his fire on Galm One, determined to take out the mercenary flight lead once and for all. Despite the inferiority of his machine, though, the veteran dog of war was still able to work his way through the barrage until he was right up in Nazara's face and lashing out with his heat rod. The Colonel climbed to avoid the strike, but Cipher stayed right with him and attacked with his beam sword.

"Persistent bastard," he growled as he crossed blades with the hellhound.

The mercenaries more than lived up to their reputation for tenacity. It was easy to see why they had been chosen as the final line of defense for GENESIS in the last war as opposed to one of ZAFT's Special Operations Squadrons; they outclassed any other soldier that had flown under Patrick Zala's banner in the closing campaign of the last war, rank and file or otherwise. Their last two-on-one match with Heero Yuy had become the stuff of legends in the aftermath of the battle; the fate of the world had hung in the balance during that duel, and critics from all sides had acclaimed it as the finest display of mobile suit piloting witnessed during the entire war. It was an almost impossible bar to clear, and yet it was one that Nazara knew he _had _to surpass if he wanted to have a chance at slaying the victor of that fight.

That was why, despite his excitement at finally having some powerful foes to engage in this battle, Nazara could not help but feel a growing sense of frustration as the fight wore on. Defeating the Galm Team would be a step towards ultimately defeating Heero Yuy, and yet he was only fighting on even ground with them right now despite the fact that they weren't even flying nuclear powered machines like he was. They were a step _down _from the formidable peak they had ascended to in the last war and Nazara _still _having trouble with them. If this was all he could manage against them, then could he really hope to defeat an adversary who had only grown _stronger _since the Second Battle of Jachin Due?

_No_, he silently fumed as he continued to engage Galm One, _I will not accept this. I _cannot _accept this! My hand _will _be the one that purges the Demon Lord of Avalon from this world, along with these two dogs of war!_

Empowered by his fury, he pressed forward, driving the mercenary flight lead back under a vicious rain of blows from his beam saber. Despite the renewed energy behind his attacks, though, Galm One was still able to fend them off. Gritting his teeth as he struggled to keep his mounting rage in check, Nazara unleashed his gunbarrel-drones, determined to ensnare his adversary in a web of emerald death. However, just before he could open fire, a lance of crimson energy speared one of his drones, and the resulting gap in the survivors' fields of fire was sufficient to allow Galm One to escape unscathed.

"Damn you, Solo Wing Pixy!" he snarled at the man who had robbed him of his chance to take down Cipher.

Much to his surprise, he actually got a response from Galm Two. "I don't know who you are, but it looks like you're losing your edge. What's wrong? You mad, pal?"

"Insolence!" Nazara hissed as he took a shot at Galm Two with his beam rifle, "Know your place, you battlefield dog!"

Galm Two chuckled as he dodged the attack. "Know _my _place? I'm pretty sure I know it better than you, asshole."

"A pilot who loses his cool so easily," Cipher chimed in as he lashed out with his heat rod, "has no place fighting against us."

Nazara growled as he dived to avoid the whip. "Hardly. Look how far the two of you have fallen from your glory days! You may have survived two fights against Wing Zero, but I've survived _four_. I'm already above you!"

"And yet you can't beat us," said Galm Two, and though the feed wasn't visual Nazara was sure that the mercenary was smirking, "What's that say about you?"

"You have talent and a powerful mobile suit," Cipher added as he and Nazara crossed blades again, "but you're arrogant. I may not know your identity, but I can tell this much just from our fight so far; you think that everyone is beneath you, and that makes you careless even when you really ought to know better."

"The careless ones are you and your lackey!" Nazara snarled, "Your machines are outmatched, and yet you continue to engage me. Your overconfidence is suicidal! You're only alive now due to dumb luck!"

"I'll admit," said Cipher as he blocked a strike from Nazara, "we were quite fortunate to survive our clashes with Wing Zero. However, luck was not the only factor at play, just as I would imagine that it was not by luck alone that you survived your encounters with that machine. However, we have the capacity to learn from our previous encounters and apply that knowledge to new engagements. I have to wonder if your overwhelming arrogance allows you to manage such a simple feat."

"Why don't you just be honest?" said Pixy as he opened up again with his heavy cannon, "You're only alive because Heero didn't think you were _worth _killing. That's my take on it, anyway."

His teeth grinding together in fury, Nazara unleashed his remaining gunbarrel-drones on Galm Two. "Then that will cost him his life, just as your pride will cost you yours!"

One of the beams grazed the Gunner ZAKU Warrior's head, but that was the closest Nazara got to landing a hit on Galm Two. He didn't have time for a follow-up attack, either; Galm One was opening up on him with his forearm cannons, forcing him to climb to get clear of the barrage of emerald energy darts.

_This has gone on long enough_, he thought, _I have a battle to win here. It's time to put these dogs of war down!_

_ The tale of the mercenary hellhounds ends here!_

….

Boris braced against the arms of his chair as the _Naomi Hunter _took a direct hit. "Report!"

"Starboard topside beam turret is out of commission!" cried the damage control officer, a dark-skinned woman in her early twenties, "All other weapons remain operational!"

Boris nodded. "Then put them to work. Let's make them pay for beating up our beauty queen!"

The rest of the frigate's armaments opened up on the closest targets that they could lock on to. A salvo from the port topside beam turret and the central dual railgun turret slammed into the bridge of a _Drake_-class escort ship, knocking the vessel out of commission. Fire from the frigate's CIWS and missile launchers managed to take down a trio of Dagger Ls, but that was all the anti-air defenses could claim with that barrage.

"Could be worse," said Kevin from behind him, "That's the first major hit we've taken this whole fight."

"Don't jinx it," Boris reprimanded him, "This slugging match isn't over yet. Courtney, how're our pilots doing?"

"We've lost Blue Five," she replied grimly, referring to one of the GuAIZs, "Blue Three has sustained significant damage and is returning now; she'll be set up for hangar approach any minute now. Blue's One, Two, and Four are still in the fight."

"What about Raiden?" he asked.

Courtney nodded. "Still going at it. Although…"

"This is no time for hesitation," said Boris, his eyes narrowing, "Good or bad, spit it out. What is it?"

Courtney sighed. "I think he's getting a little too… into this, if you know what I mean, sir."

Kevin chuckled grimly. "So he's let the other 'Jack' out… guess we should've seen that coming at a time like this."

_True enough_, thought Boris, _I don't like this beast that he keeps repressed so much of the time, but if it serves him well here, then I suppose I'll have to tolerate it…_

He certainly couldn't argue with Raiden's current performance in this fight. Maverick's top pilot was azure lightning unleashed, blitzing through the Alliance's mobile suit squadrons with incredible speed and ferocity. The Raijin was more than proving its worth as a fast attack mobile suit, and Boris idly wondered if ZAFT was regretting only producing a single prototype right about now.

If Boris had any complaints, it was with how far forward Raiden had advanced over the course of the battle. He'd remained at the very front of ZAFT's line ever since the fighting had started, and he was carving his way through the enemy ranks so quickly that Maverick's GuAIZs were really only able to provide token support at this point. The fact that Raiden was racking up so many kills would be good for Maverick's future contracts with ZAFT assuming the PLANTs made it through this battle in one piece, but Boris would've preferred his top ace exercising a little more restraint. It was just a sign of how much he'd let 'The Ripper' come out in this fight, and Boris could only hope that he retained enough situational awareness to avoid getting cut off from friendly forces and overwhelmed.

"Will he be okay like this?" asked Courtney, "I mean, he's tearing it up out there, but…"

"He'll be fine," said Kevin, "He's in his element, even if he's letting his nasty side come out to play. I almost feel bad for the sons of bitches that have to fight him out there. _Almost_."

_Indeed_, Boris mused darkly, _It's hard to feel much pity for the enemy when their agenda is likely the complete annihilation of our homeland. If Raiden unleashing The Ripper is the price to pay for saving our people, then so be it._

He turned his attention from his top ace to the larger battle. Neither side was letting up, and the body count was growing rapidly by the second. The _Naomi Hunter _was far from the only warship to bear scars from this encounter, and Boris doubted than any ship from either side would make it through the gargantuan brawn unscathed. It was hard to believe that these two armadas actually represented the _reduced _strength of the Earth Alliance and ZAFT fleets following the Treaty of Junius Seven; this was still a clash for the history books even if it couldn't measure up to the Second Battle of Jachin Due.

"Boris," said Courtney, "Blue Three's lined up for hangar approach!"

He nodded. "Open up and get her in quickly! Have medical on standby in the hangar in case she's wounded!"

Courtney nodded. "Copy that!"

He could see the battered GuAIZ on the main monitor. The blue machine had definitely taken a beating; the right arm and the rifle it had held had been completely destroyed, the left leg had been mauled, and one of the thrusters had taken a hit too. There was no way the hangar crews would have it patched up and ready to sortie again in this fight; it would be out for the rest of the round.

"Hostile contacts coming in!" cried the sensor operator, "Dagger Ls, three of them!"

"Let them have it!" Boris ordered, "Cover Blue Three!"

The ship's CIWS and anti-air missile launchers opened up in a furious barrage, and even the frigate's heavy artillery joined in on the action. The incoming Alliance mobile suits were flying in a tight formation, and in the midst of an anti-air curtain like the one thrown up by the _Naomi Hunter _that was a fatal mistake. Two of the Dagger Ls were ripped apart by missiles, while the third was shredded by streams of shells from the CIWs.

"Targets down!" yelled Courtney, "Blue Three is aboard!"

Boris sighed with relief. "Good. Close up the hangar; we don't want a lucky shot getting in there!"

"Roger that!" she replied.

From the back of the bridge he heard Kevin whistle. "Cutting it a little close there. Talk about a lucky break."

_No argument there_, thought Boris, _but in a fight like this, I'll take whatever small favors I can get._

One pilot dead and their GuAIZ lost, another severely damaged with its pilot possibly wounded; if those were the only casualties that Maverick Security Consulting suffered today then Boris would consider his company to have gotten off easy. Unfortunately for him and his subordinates the battle wasn't over yet. Even with his past experience it was still hard to imagine how both sides could continue to stomach the level of carnage he was witnessing, but the brawl still showed no signs of easing up. He wouldn't be surprised if he gained a few new gray hairs from this fight; he might be able to hide it from his crew, but the stress this battle was putting him through was all too real. It wasn't his own safety that he was concerned with, but that of his employees. Even if they all knew what they'd signed up for when they'd joined the company it was still rough to put them through a clash like this.

"So," said Kevin, "how much longer until they bring out the big guns?"

"Hard to say," Boris replied as he watched the continuing clash through the main viewport, "Honestly, I don't know why they haven't brought them out already. With the losses we've taken there are definitely openings for them to exploit now."

Kevin nodded. "It's gotta be soon. I hope our employers are ready for it, because we won't be able to do shit when it goes down."

That was all too true. Maverick could engage in regular combat, but the group wasn't outfitted for missile interception. If the Earth Alliance really had brought nuclear weapons to the party and were just moments away from firing them, Boris and his employees would be completely powerless to stop them.

"We have to trust that the Defense Council planned for that eventuality," he said, "That is their responsibility. Ours is simply to fight and survive, so let's focus on that."

"You got it, boss," Kevin replied.

….

From the bridge of the _Victory_, Admiral Gregory Wallace scowled as he watched the continuing fleet brawl. Such a clash of warships and mobile suits was truly a glorious sight to behold, but at the moment he was less concerned with the ongoing bloody spectacle than he was with whether or not the enemy had been softened up enough for his armada to launch its knockout strike. Timing was crucial, and even without the meddlers from the last war on the field the Admiral was concerned about possible interference with the pending nuclear attack. He wanted to launch his final strike with absolute certainty of success, but in a chaotic battle like this certainty was a luxury that no one could afford. All he could do was evaluate the situation and make the appropriate judgment call… and hope that if things went wrong Nazara would at least spare his life.

"Where's the Colonel?" he asked the carrier's primary mobile suit combat coordinator.

"Still engaged with the Galm Team," the officer replied, "They appear to be stalemated, sir."

_Of all the rotten luck_, he thought, _Those dogs of war were supposed to have died in the last war. Meeting them here is an ill omen…_

At least Nazara was keeping the mercenary hellhounds occupied. The last thing the Admiral needed was for the two of them to start carving into the Alliance's capital ships. Even if the Galm Team didn't have the same powerful units they'd used in the final battle of the last war, they were still capable of inflicting plenty of damage. They'd already done in a few warships and had helped blunt the assault from the Juggernaut mobile armors before engaging the Nosferatu, so if the Colonel was able to keep them contained for the rest of the fight then the Admiral would have no complaints. He wouldn't even mind if the mercenaries succeeded in killing the masked leader of Phantom Pain, although he would then have to answer to Lord Djibril, and he doubted that encounter would be a pleasant one.

"What's the status of our nuclear strike squadrons?" he asked.

"All launchers have been fitted to their Windams, and all warheads have been loaded," replied the flight coordinator, "The vessels carrying them are all intact. The units can be launched and their warheads armed on demand."

It was something of a miracle that all of the mobile suit squadrons dedicated to the coming nuclear strike were still in one piece. The carriers that held them had been kept at the rear of the armada so that the front ranks would act as a shield for them, but with the amount of fire both sides had been trading it was still amazing that the fleet's trump card remained intact. Admiral Wallace did not know how much longer his luck would hold; the time to strike would have to come soon.

As things stood now, losses for both sides were at the forty percent mark. ZAFT had yet to bring in reserves, but the Admiral was sure that that would change soon enough. This was their homeland that the enemy was defending, and he had no doubt that they would fight to the last soldier to keep it safe. There were enough breaches in the enemy ranks that a nuclear strike at this time was certainly a viable option, but would it have maximum effectiveness?

In the end, the Admiral came to the conclusion that now was likely the best chance he'd get. If the enemy brought in reserves to fill the gaps then the odds of success would diminish, and since the Alliance lacked their own reserves in this fight it would signal a shift to a battle of attrition that they were not equipped to win. However, despite his official position as the head of the armada, he could not actually make the order to launch the strike by himself; he needed Colonel Nazara to sign off.

"Get me the Nosferatu," he said, "Now!"

A few seconds later the masked Colonel appeared on the monitor. "What is it, Admiral? I'm a little busy here at present, so do make this quick."

"Colonel," said Wallace, "It is time; we won't get a cleaner shot than this. We have to deploy our trump card now."

There was a moment of silence, and the Admiral feared that the Colonel would overrule him, but then he simply nodded. "Very well. Deploy and launch at your discretion, Admiral. Nosferatu, out."

The Admiral sighed with relief as the Colonel disappeared from the screen. The time for doubts and hesitation was over. Now he had leave to unleash the fires of Armageddon, and he wasted no time in doing so.

"Contact all carriers that are transporting nuclear strike squadrons and order them to launch their mobile suits," he ordered, "Launch the ones on the _Victory _as well. Have our regular squadrons redouble their attack, and the same goes for our capital ships; we must keep ZAFT off balance so the missiles make it through to their targets! The first wave can be fired as soon as the pilots have targeting solutions!"

"Understood, Admiral!" replied the communications officer.

He smiled as the officer relayed his instructions to the other carriers while the flight control officer ordered the _Victory_'s nuclear strike squadrons to launch. The battle was about to enter its final act, and it promised to be one hell of a finale.

_Today_, he thought triumphantly, _we will accomplish what our predecessors could not. The mightiest fleet ever assembled in history failed in this task, but we shall surpass them, and ours will go down in history as the force that ended the Coordinator threat once and for all!_

_ For the preservation of our blue and pure world!_

….

"Admiral!" cried the _Gondwana_'s primary sensor officer, "We've got new launches from the enemy carriers! Profiles are confirmed as Windams, but they're outfitted differently than the units our pilots have encountered so far today."

"Show me," Grand Admiral Brinkmann replied calmly.

The view on the main monitor shifted from the broader battle to a zoomed in shot of the newcomers. His eyes narrowed as he saw the specialized augmentations these particular Windams had been given. They consisted of a pair of launchers, one mount on each shoulder, and in each of those launchers was a large missile. It didn't take a genius to guess what kind of missiles they were, but Brinkmann waited for confirmation nonetheless.

"Detecting radiation signatures from the new contacts!" cried the sensor officer, "God, it can't be…"

"Nukes," said Captain Allen, her voice harder than granite.

Brinkmann nodded grimly. "Indeed. The hour of judgment is here. Get me the _Johannes Bosscha _immediately!"

"Aye, Admiral," said the communication's officer, "Establishing the link now!"

Admiral Jaime Delgado appeared on the main monitor a moment later. "Grand Admiral! Is it time?"

"Yes," said Brinkmann, his steely gaze fixed on Delgado, "We've confirmed nuclear strike squadrons are launching from the Earth Alliance carriers. Is the countermeasure ready for use?"

Delgado nodded. "We can spin it up and fire on your command."

Brinkmann nodded. "Good. It won't by my command it fires upon, though. This device is your section's brainchild, Admiral. I leave its deployment in your hands."

Delgado's eyes widened. "Grand Admiral… are you sure?"

"Now is hardly a time for jokes, Admiral," Brinkmann replied, "The fate of the PLANTs is in your hands now. We will send you targeting data, but the final fire command will be issued by you. Good luck."

"To all of us," Captain Allen added quietly.

_And so it comes at last_, thought Brinkmann as Delgado disappeared from the screen, _the deciding moment of this battle…_

….

The instant his superior had vanished from the screen, Admiral Delgado turned to the Captain of the _Johannes Bosscha_. "Begin the priming sequence at once. We'll only get one shot at this, so let's make it count."

The dark-skinned Captain Adam Trevelyan nodded grimly. "Understood, Admiral."

As the destroyer's crew brought the Neutron Stampeder online, Delgado studied an image of the device on his personal monitor. The anti-nuke countermeasure was bigger than the destroyer it was mounted on, and if it was used successfully today it would become one of the crowning achievements of Delgado's R&amp;D section. Two massive bracers, one on each side of the bridge, helped clamp the Neutron Stampeder to the destroyer, and these were further reinforced by two smaller spurs that extended from the base of the device. The central pylon was mounted over the entrance of the destroyer's hangar, so the vessel's mobile suits had been transferred to the _Gondwana _prior to the start of the battle. The pylon extended out well past the bow, and mounted on it were a series of twelve fins, with six on each side. These were the device's emitters, and if they performed as predicted today they would be the key to saving the PLANTs from utter annihilation.

"Has the enemy launched their missiles yet?" he asked.

The sensor officer shook her head. "Not yet, Admiral, but the units carrying the warheads are advancing rapidly."

"It won't be much longer before they fire," said Captain Trevelyan, "Will this device be fully primed on time?"

"It'll have to be," said Delgado, "or this was all for nothing."

Fortunately he could already see sparks of energy dancing along the fins of the device as the Neutron Stampeder came online. The countermeasure was designed for rapid response and deployment once it was mounted on a warship, but the power it drew from its host vessel was substantial. Delgado still wasn't entirely sure how many of the destroyer's systems it would knock out when it fired, but he did know that it would at the very least render the ship inert. They would be incredibly vulnerable to enemy attack, even more so than they were already. A token force of four frigates and another destroyer had been assigned to escort the _Johannes Bosscha_, but that was all Brinkmann was willing to spare; the rest of ZAFT's vessels were allocated to the reserve battle groups, and too large of an escort would draw the Alliance's attention to the Neutron Stampeder before it was ready to be used. Maintaining a low profile was critical to their success, and so far that approach had paid off.

Powering up the Neutron Stampeder would throw that approach out the window. The energy spike would be impossible for the Earth Alliance to miss, but the _Johannes Bosscha _was positioned at a sufficient distance from the fray that by the time the enemy could move to attack her and her tiny escort flotilla it would be far too late.

"Priming status?" he asked.

"Thirty-five percent!" the weapons officer responded, "Forty... fifty…. Sixty…."

"Let's hope this thing doesn't burn out before it can fire," Captain Trevelyan muttered under his breath.

_Agreed_, thought Delgado.

The sparks dancing along the fins of the Neutron Stampeder increased in intensity, and Delgado could hear a thrumming come from within the ship as it fed more power to the device. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end, and if it weren't for his uniform's sleeves the goose bumps on his arms would be visible for all too see. Today would secure his place in history as either a triumphant hero or a colossal failure; there was no middle ground.

_It'll be one hell of a chapter to put in the memoir_, he mused, _If I live long enough to write one, anyway…_

"Seventy-five percent!" called the weapons officer, "Eighty… eighty-five…. ninety…."

"Come on," Captain Trevelyan hissed.

"Missile launches detected!" shouted the sensor officer, "The first wave's firing!"

"Ninety-five… One-hundred!" cried the weapons officer, "Primed for firing!"

Delgado's response was immediate. "_Fire!_"

_Here goes nothing…_

….

A twisted grin was on Nazara's face as he continued his clash with the Galm Team. The mercenaries were still putting up a furious fight, but now it did not matter how much they strove to defeat him; they had already lost.

_You have failed, Galm Team_, he thought triumphantly as he saw the first wave of nuclear-burdened Windams let fly with their devastating payloads, _The moment of our victory has finally arrived!_

He knew from intelligence briefings that ZAFT completely lacked a long range anti-missile system. The closest they had gotten to that was the METEOR weapons developed alongside the stolen battleship _Eternal _during the last war, and with both the vessel and the weapon system in the hands of the renegades they'd never created replacements for them. Had they mass produced the METEORs and created a defense network with them it would've proven to be a formidable barrier, but the system was complex and expensive so ZAFT had never pursued that angle.

That didn't mean that the Coordinators were standing by idly as the first wave of nuclear missiles took off. The massed warships and mobile suits continued to trade fire with their Earth Alliance counterparts, but a significant number of them were now redirecting their cannons and missiles towards the oncoming warheads. The volume of fire, while not the full might of the armada, was quite impressive, but it lacked the precision required to take down the missiles. The lifespan of all Coordinators residing at L5 could now be measured in just a handful of seconds. There were backup waves of Windams armed with nukes at the ready, but from what Nazara could see he doubted that they would be needed.

"You've lost, you dogs!" he snarled as he traded sword strikes with Galm One while unleashing his gunbarrel-drones on Galm Two, "Your home is going to burn, and you're _powerless _to stop it!"

"You son of a bitch!" snarled Pixy as he fired his Orthros heavy cannon at Nazara, who effortlessly dodged the shot.

Cipher was silent, opting to simply continue to exchange blows with Nazara. The mercenary seemed to have already written off the colonies as a loss, and was now focused on avenging their impending demise. That was fine by Nazara; once the PLANTs were destroyed the follow-up nukes could be used against the ZAFT fleet, and then Alliance mobile suits and capital ships could help him overwhelm the Galm Team and take them down for good. Then the Alliance would turn its attention to the Orb colonies at L3 and the remaining Coordinator enclaves on the surface of the Earth. The final cleansing that Muruta Azrael had failed to achieve in his campaign two years ago was now underway at last, and nothing could stop it now. Nazara and Lord Djibril were about to triumph where their predecessor had not, and for the Colonel it was a sensation sweeter than the finest wine.

Until it all went straight to hell.

An alarming high pitched chime came from his sensors, and behind the mask Nazara's eyes widened as he saw the source. It was an energy spike, the likes of which he hadn't seen since the Break The World Incident. The source was quite unexpected; it was a small flotilla hovering at the very edge of the battlefield, consisting of only four frigates and two destroyers. As he zoomed in he saw that one of the destroyers had been modified and fitted with a prolonged spar-like device with several fins jutting from it. The fins were glowing with energy, and Nazara's mind suddenly flashed back to the final battle of the last war.

_No_, he thought, _it's not GENESIS. So what _is _it?_

His question was answered a second later as all the energy built up within the device was unleashed in a tsunami of raw power. Nazara's sensors went haywire, but he was able to pick up one distinct reading; the energy's signature was similar in nature to that of N-Jammers, but it was in a form that the Colonel had never seen those devices come anywhere close to emitting. Suddenly the fact that he was piloting a nuclear powered mobile suit ceased to be an asset in his mind, and he immediately broke off his engagement with the Galm Team. He pushed his thrusters to the max, climbing as fast as he could in the hopes of getting above the massive wave of energy that was sweeping across the battlefield.

The torrent of power actually went over the ZAFT forces first, but Nazara's eyes narrowed as he saw that the energy had no discernible effect on the Coordinator fleet. Warships and mobile suits alike were completely unscathed, and the same went for the Earth Alliance's units.

Except for those carrying nuclear warheads.

The missiles that had already been launched detonated the moment that the wave of energy washed over them. A series of massive orange blossoms of radioactive fire bloomed, consuming all nearby contacts whether they were friend or foe. The first wave of warheads was utterly consumed, with all of them going off far short of their intended targets.

But the devastation didn't stop there. A second later the storm of power met the reserve waves of Windams that had yet to unleash their payloads. Like the missiles that had already been launched, these detonated in a titanic display of raw firepower that one might find to be beautiful under other circumstances. This certainly did not qualify as such an occasion as far as Nazara concerned, for these detonations were taking place right in the heart of the Earth Alliance armada.

_Durandal, you son of a bitch_, Nazara seethed in silent rage as he watched the conflagration spread, _You played us!_

With painstaking effort and at staggering financial cost, the Atlantic Federation had spent the past two years secretly rebuilding the nuclear stockpile that had been expended and wasted at the Second Battle of Jachin Due. As today's operation was nothing less than an attack on the Coordinator homeland, the Earth Alliance's armada had been armed with every single nuke that had been built through those clandestine efforts; Lord Djibril and Colonel Nazara had decided to leave nothing to chance when it came to the annihilation of the denizens of L5. However, that thoroughness was now being turned against them, as the tsunami of energy from ZAFT's new weapon was obliterating every nuclear weapon on the battlefield… along with every ship and mobile suit unfortunate enough to get caught in the blast radius as the warheads detonated. Nazara didn't know what kind of effect the wave would've had on the nuclear reactor of the Nosferatu, but his earlier decision to climb and escape the attack before it was too late appeared to be paying off.

The combined light from ZAFT's new weapon and the detonations of so many nuclear devices at once overwhelmed the Nosferatu's visual sensors, causing a temporary blackout. The mobile suit's other scanners were still working just fine, though… and they showed the once glorious Earth Alliance armada being utterly devastated by their own trump card.

Even in his fury, the strategist in him had to admire what his foe had done. After the events of the last war, a bind idiot would've known that the Earth Alliance's first move in the event of renewed hostilities would be to immediately march on L5 with overwhelming force. ZAFT had prepared accordingly, but it was only now that Nazara realized his adversary's true goal.

Durandal had set a trap, and the entire Coordinator civilian population of L5 had been the bait. Repelling the Earth Alliance's armada would've been one thing, but the deployment of this new ZAFT creation revealed the Supreme Council Chairman's _real _objective; to annihilate the Atlantic Federation's hidden nuclear stockpile in the opening engagement of the war. The entire setup had been on colossal gambit, and for Nazara's foe it had paid off in spectacular fashion.

"Clever bastard, aren't you?" Nazara hissed, "Damn you, Durandal!"

The light faded enough for the Nosferatu's visual sensors to function properly again. It was little comfort, though; all it gave Nazara was a naked eye confirmation of what the rest of his mobile suit's scanners were already telling him.

The Earth Alliance armada had been taking steady losses prior to launching their nukes, but the force had still been cohesive and at sixty percent fighting strength. The fleet's unity, direction, and power had been shattered by their own nukes detonating in their midst. All of the carriers, including the _Victory_, had been wiped out. The bulk of the battleships, destroyers, and escort ships had likewise been annihilated. An armada that had once boasted a thousand warships had been reduced to barely over forty, and those survivors were all battered and scarred. The chain of command had been obliterated; Colonel Nazara was now likely the highest ranking officer, giving him both de jure and de facto leadership over the remaining forces.

_At least I won't have to use Wallace as a mouthpiece anymore_, he mused, _That was getting old really fast._

Both sides had ceased firing in the wake of the near-complete annihilation of the Earth Alliance armada, but Nazara doubted ZAFT would refrain from attacking forever. Further combat was beyond pointless now, and the Colonel did not feel like committing suicide via enemy fire today.

"Attention all surviving Earth Alliance forces," he said, "This is Colonel Nazara. Withdraw immediately. Fall back to the Lunar Perimeter."

There were no protests, not that the Colonel had expected any; after the tables had been so brutally turned he was sure that the survivors just wanted to get the hell out of dodge. He set course for the closest battleship, sparing one last look at ZAFT's new weapon as he did so.

_So nukes are out of the question now_, he thought, _Well, there are _other _plans in motion. They'll just take longer to come to fruition. This was only the first battle._

_ This war is far from over._

….

"Transmission coming in from Aprilius One!" called the communications officer, "It's on HQ's line."

"Likely the Chairman, then," said Captain Allen.

Grand Admiral Brinkmann nodded. "Patch him through."

Sure enough, Durandal's face appeared on the main monitor a few seconds later. "Congratulations, Grand Admiral."

Brinkmann shook his head. "Thank you, Chairman, but the praise should go to Admiral Delgado; it was the Neutron Stampeder that won us the day."

"I will contact him next," said Durandal, "but I wanted to speak to you first. What's the status of the enemy survivors?"

"They're in full retreat," Brinkmann replied, "Shall we pursue?"

Durandal shook his head. "Let them go. It's better for the Alliance to get accounts of what happened here from firsthand witnesses. I imagine the psychological impact will be greater that way."

Brinkmann nodded. "Understood, Chairman. Anything else?"

"Not at this time," Durandal replied, "I'll leave you to your work. I eagerly await your debriefing at the next Defense Council meeting. Until then, Grand Admiral."

As soon as the Chairman disappeared Brinkmann began issuing new orders. "Commence search and rescue operations. All undamaged mobile suits are to assist with scanning for survivors and bringing damaged units to any ship with the space for them. The fleet will remain on full combat alert until recovery operations are complete."

The communications officer started relaying his orders to the rest of the fleet while Brinkmann turned to Captain Allen. "How long will the _Gondwana _be in for repairs?"

She shook her head. "That's difficult to say. I don't believe we've sustained major damage, but we did take some hits that need to be addressed. I'm more concerned about replenishing our pilot and mobile suit ranks than repairs on the carrier at the moment, though."

"Of course," said Brinkmann, "The _Gondwana _will be given top priority for new pilot assignments to bring her up to full strength. We can do at least that much for the flagship of the fleet."

Captain Allen nodded. "Thank you, Grand Admiral."

_So_, he thought as he returned his attention to the forward viewport and the vast field of destroyed and damaged ships and mobile suits before him, _round one is ours. The Earth Alliance space forces will take some time to lick their wounds, which means their next move will be on the surface. It's going to be a ground game for a while now. I hope we're ready._

….

"So that's what they were hiding," said Heero.

He was down in the hardened communications room beneath Terminal's estate, and he wasn't alone; Murrue and other senior members of the group were with him, along with the three Gundam pilots that had come here following the Break The World Incident. Thanks to Eric Bristow's connections within ZAFT they'd been able to tap into Coordinator satellite feeds to monitor the engagement at L5, and while it had bothered Heero to have to sit back and watch rather than join the fray himself he knew it was impossible for them to get in on the action. In any case, he was relieved to see that their suspicions about ZAFT possessing a countermeasure to deploy against the Atlantic Federation's nukes were proven correct, although he would've preferred to have concrete evidence of that prior to the massive fight they'd just witnessed.

"Impressive," said Murrue from her seat next to him, "I don't know what I was expecting, but… well, it wasn't _that_."

Andrew Waltfeld nodded. "I'll say. ZAFT's outdone themselves."

"They took some pretty heavy losses in that fight," said Aisha, "but given the outcome the Defense Council would be justified in stating their victory was worth the cost."

Eric Bristow chuckled. "I'll say. They just wiped out about a third of the Earth Alliance's orbital fighting strength and made them waste their nuclear stockpile in the process. Looks like Durandal's bet paid off big time."

Shemei sighed with relief. "At least the colonies survived. Gotta admit, I was pretty worried for a minute there."

Duo whistled. "No kidding. The Atlantic Federation _really _wants to wipe out Coordinators if that's the kind of firepower they're bringing to the big opening match. Talk about having issues…"

"They lost this round," said Quatre, "but I doubt they'll sit idle for long. They've still got plenty of firepower up in space, not to mention their surface forces."

Trowa nodded. "Their orbital fleets have taken a serious hit, so their next major campaign will likely be down here. The Pacific Fleet's still heading this way, after all, and with their current position it's still impossible to say if they're gunning for Carpentaria or Orb."

"It'll be Carpentaria now," said Heero firmly.

Murrue raised an eyebrow. "How can you be so sure?"

"ZAFT just humiliated them," Heero replied, "The Atlantic Federation will want to make up for that. Attacking them directly on the surface will be the way to go. Their Atlantic Fleet's probably making for Gibraltar with similar intentions."

Andrew nodded. "I think Heero's right. The Alliance can still threaten Orb, but payback against ZAFT's likely their top priority now. With the losses they just took up in orbit any similar moves in outer space are out of the question for a while, so hitting ZAFT's two strongholds on Earth is the next logical step."

"I hope they're ready," said Aisha, "Gibraltar and Carpentaria are hardened bases, but they can't hold out against a siege forever."

"So," said Shemei, "we've got a good idea as to the enemy's next move. What's ours gonna be?"

"Same as before," Eric replied, "If the Pacific Fleet tries to wipe out the troops at Carpentaria, their rear will be exposed to us. We'll be the hammer and let ZAFT play the anvil."

Duo grinned. "Sounds like a plan to me!"

Trowa nodded. "I'll be ready for whatever part we must play."

"I'm worried about Orb," said Quatre, "With the losses they just took up in orbit, the Earth Alliance will be desperate to bolster their strength in any way possible. They're going to ratchet up the pressure on Cagalli's government to side with them now, and if her position's undermined by the Seirans she won't be able to stand up to them."

That possibility had never been far from Heero's mind. Cagalli's situation and Orb's in general was all too precarious. Joining the Earth Alliance was the last thing she would ever agree to, but if enough nobles and ministers backed the idea then she would be powerless to stop them. He didn't just care about it because of what it meant for the war as a whole, but because seeing her country become nothing more than a vassal of the Atlantic Federation and violate its principles in the process would devastate Cagalli. She was more than just an ally; he considered her a friend, and he wanted to help her in any way that he could.

"If it comes to that," he said, "we'll have to get her out of here. We can't let the Earth Alliance use her as a puppet."

Murrue shook her head. "Heero, you're talking about kidnapping a head of state. That's a tall order, even given our level of access to Cagalli."

"It's not kidnapping if she comes along willingly," Heero countered.

Andrew raised his hand. "I think we're getting a little ahead of ourselves here. The pro-Alliance forces in Cagalli's government haven't made their move yet. Orb's official stance is still neutrality, and until we see concrete signs that it's being thrown out the window by the Seirans and their supporters we can't risk taking action against the government."

"But we can't just sit back and watch forever," said Aisha, "We're going to have to make a move sooner or later."

"Our fight is with the Earth Alliance for now," said Eric, "We need to focus on that until we know for sure that Orb's going to move into their camp."

"Still," said Shemei, "there's no harm in drafting a contingency plan. If anyone's in a position to slip her away from the Seirans and the Alliance, it's us."

"Sign me up for that job," said Duo with a smirk, "If it throws a wrench into their plans, then I'm all for it!"

Trowa nodded. "The enemy can't be allowed to have her as their public face in Orb. If we must extract her, then I'll help with that operation."

"Same here," said Quatre, "I'd hate for her to end up like Relena did with Romefeller back in our war."

"Hey, she turned that around pretty well," said Duo with a grin, "Made it backfire right in Duke Dermail's face when she gave that speech, remember?"

"We're talking two different leaders here," said Heero grimly, "Relena was a gifted public speaker even back then. Her charisma's a powerful weapon, but unfortunately it's one that Cagalli lacks. She has firm faith in her ideals, but her oratory abilities aren't quite up there with Relena's. Even if they were, I don't think her opponents would be swayed by just words at this point."

Murrue sighed. "I fear you're right about that. If words and diplomacy had a chance to work, we wouldn't be in this mess. The time for talk is over, and that goes for Orb as well as the Alliance and ZAFT."

"And us by extension," said Andrew, "The war's already begun. The Alliance and ZAFT are already on the field, and we'll be joining them there soon enough."

That was all too true, but Heero couldn't shake the feeling that they were missing some critical pieces of the wider puzzle. The Earth Alliance's objectives were straightforward, and the same went for Cagalli's internal opponents in Orb too. What made him uneasy was ZAFT. The battle they'd just witnessed had made it clear that the PLANTs had greatly enhanced their defensive capabilities over the past two years even with the restrictions from the Treaty of Junius Seven in place, and Heero had to wonder just what else was in their new arsenal. The Earth Alliance had already blatantly shown to the world its violations of the treaty, so if ZAFT had any proscribed weapons of their own they would likely be fielding them soon enough.

It wasn't the PLANTs' arsenal that had Heero worried, though; it was the endgame. If an ordinary leader was in charge then the Gundam pilot would've felt comfortable assuming that a defensive war would be ZAFT's overall strategy, but Gilbert Durandal was anything but ordinary. The man was charismatic, cunning, and if Heero's conversation with him after the Armory One raid was any indication he definitely had a long term vision that stretched beyond L5's security.

_I can't figure out his endgame_, he thought, _and that needs to change fast. I don't know why, but…_

_ …I feel like this entire war's riding on the answer to that question._

**Preview for next time!**

_The first battle of the Second Bloody Valentine War is over, and the result is a decisive victory for ZAFT. With their assault force annihilated, the Earth Alliance moves to a defensive posture in outer space. However, their forces on the surface of the planet are still at full strength, and ZAFT races to reinforce its garrisons before the enemy lays siege. As the fleets and armies of the two superpowers maneuver into position, the Atlantic Federation's pawns in the Orb Union become more aggressive, confronting Cagalli with a scenario that runs counter to all of her ideal. Meanwhile, ZAFT makes moves of its own within the neutral nation, but Durandal's sights are on a prize distinctly separate from the Orb Union itself. Next time, on "Destiny's Call", Episode Ten: Cloak and Dagger._

_Not all battles are fought in the open…_

**Author's Notes: **On the technical side of things, the ZGMF-V01 'Raijin' is actually based on the Grimgerde from Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans, with some adaptations and modifications to fit it in with the Gundam SEED universe. Couldn't help myself, I love that machine!

Well, we've finally got some combat going in the story again. It took me a little longer than I thought it would to get back to the action side of this, fic, thanks for sticking with me!

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please review!


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Notes: **Hello there! Sorry this one took so long! Believe it or not, it's actually shorter than I had originally planned; I decided to shift some content from this one to the next one. I really am I trying to get better at managing the length of these, it's a lot harder than you'd think!

Song list for the chapter, in order of appearance: "Annex", "B7R", "Contact", and "Excalibur", all from Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War.

Enjoy!

**Episode Ten: Cloak and Dagger**

To say that there was a rather tense silence between Colonel Nazara and Lord Djibril was something of an understatement. The attack on L5 had ended in catastrophe and the Colonel was heading back to the Moon with the battered remnants of a once mighty fleet, and it had taken him a full hour to contact Lord Djibril because he'd been trying to figure out the best way to describe the colossal failure. There was really no way to put a decent spin on things, so in the end he decided to be blunt and get it over with.

Under other circumstance, Nazara might laugh at his erstwhile boss. Djibril's fury was very apparent even over the monitor in the private communications suite of the _Nelson_-class battleship _Fletcher_, but the head of LOGOS was still trying to maintain a dignified appearance. The end result was that the most powerful man in the Atlantic Federation and the broader Earth Alliance looked incredibly constipated more than anything else, and the Colonel had to wonder how much longer the floodgates would hold up.

"So," said Lord Djibril slowly, "let me get this straight. I made sure that your armada was armed with _every nuclear weapon _we had developed over the past two years, and not only was that not enough to accomplish our objective, but in fact they were turned against our fleet. Would that be an accurate description?"

"Yes," Nazara replied, waiting for the hammer to fall.

It didn't take long. Djibril slammed his fist against the arm of his chair, seething with rage.

"You _incompetent ass_!" he snarled, "This was supposed to be our moment of triumph against those freaks! We were going to burn their precious homeland to _cinders _and then present that to the world as an example of what happens when you cross the Earth Alliance. Instead we lost a full third of our orbital combat forces in a matter of _seconds _and the PLANTs still stand! The entire Earth Sphere now knows that we've been violating the treaty, and we lack the victory required to silence them! We played our hand for _nothing_!"

"Our intelligence reports regarding the Coordinator defenses mentioned nothing about the new device they deployed against our missiles," said Nazara, trying to keep his cool, "If we had known about that weapon we could've countered it."

"Heads will roll within the intelligence community," said Djibril with a glare, "but I'm less concerned with their failure at the moment than I am with _yours_. What was supposed to be a display of power has instead become a complete debacle! Do you have _any _idea how far back our efforts to wipe out the Coordinators and unite this world under our banner were just set?"

"Not as far back as you may believe," Nazara countered, "From what I understand, work on the Requiem weapon continues apace. It's still quite some time away from completion, but once it _is _ready it will be just an effective a means to deal with L5 as our nuclear arsenal would've been."

"Requiem," Djibril hissed, "was meant to bring the Orb Union colonies and the rest of the Earth Sphere into line. By the time the weapon would be ready for deployment we had planned on the PLANTs already being reduced to _ashes!_ Your failure has disrupted our _entire strategy _for this war!"

"I disagree," Nazara shot back, "Our nukes are gone and our space forces have sustained heavy losses, but we still hold the momentum. ZAFT's fleet took a pounding defending their homeland, and we're still advancing on the surface. We may have to go on the defensive in outer space, but on Earth itself the ball remains in our court."

"But now the renegades from the last war will have more freedom to maneuver," said Djibril, "After nuking the PLANTs we were going to use our heavy artillery to threaten L3. That option's no longer on the table, which means those meddlers and traitors can now focus on moving against us on the surface. We had Wing Zero in check, but now that damn thing will have free reign!"

"You overestimate our abilities if you think we _ever _had that machine and its pilot in check," said Nazara, "Heero Yuy restrains himself according to the situation, but if pressed hard enough I imagine he would've made a move regardless of the threats we made to the L3 colonies. Now he'll simply be returning to the battlefield earlier than we'd like. As soon as the Nosferatu has been repaired and upgraded I'll be more than happy to sortie against him."

"I'm sure you'll understand if I doubt your ability to provide an effective counter to him," Djibril spat, "From what I understand, you were barely able to hold your own against the Galm Team in this battle, and they were flying machines significantly inferior to yours. You may have survived four battles against Wing Zero, but that's not the same as coming out ahead."

Under the mask, Nazara was scowling at his boss. "You let _me _worry about taking him on again. Last I checked, mobile suit combat is hardly _your _area of expertise."

Djibril folded his arms. "Tread carefully, Colonel. Your skills as a pilot and field commander are valuable, but you are _not _irreplaceable."

"_I_ am Azrael's legacy," Nazara growled, "_I _am the heir to his cause and his organization. _You _are just his _placeholder_!"

"A legacy merely carries sentimental value," Djibril retorted, "It has no practical bearing on your contribution to our campaign. Do not overestimate your importance, Colonel. Remember that I'm well aware as to the project that brought you into our ranks. Replacing you would be something of a hassle at this point in the war, but it _can _be done nonetheless."

"Replace me," Nazara snarled, "and you won't have a pilot with my level of expertise. You'll only have sheer numbers to throw against Wing Zero and its allies. That wasn't enough in the last war, and our ranks aren't as vast now as they were back then. _You're _the one who needs to tread carefully, Djibril."

There was silence for a moment, and Nazara wondered who would blink first in their standoff. The Colonel and Djibril were both proud men, but Nazara knew that his mettle was stronger. After all, only one of them had the guts to actually take part in open combat.

Djibril scoffed, but the slight relaxing of his demeanor was all Nazara needed to know that he'd won this round. "Your indiscretions will cost you eventually, but for now we have other matters to attend to. Today's fiasco means that some of our other plans will have to be accelerated if we're to get things back on track. Projects Reaper and Iron Legion in particular will need to be advanced considerably, and we'll have to crank out more Extended as a stopgap measure. Our labs will be quite busy, that's for sure."

"Do we have enough subjects to continue producing viable units?" asked Nazara, "I was under the impression that the Lodonia Institute was chewing through them at a rather extreme rate. Their ruthlessness in pursuit of perfection is commendable, but too high of a body count cuts into our ability to field new warriors."

"I'm well aware of the production figures coming out of Lodonia," Djibril replied, "and I see no reason to worry. The units that survive to join our ranks are all the stronger for the harsh conditions, after all. Your little pet is evidence enough of that, after all."

"Speaking of Stella," said Nazara, "will her and I be joining our surface forces for the next stage of our campaign?"

Djibril nodded. "Yes. I've already had her transferred to the Pacific Fleet since the doctors reported she wasn't in prime condition for the attack on L5. You may join her as soon as the remnants of the armada arrive at Luna."

Nazara smiled. "I look forward to it."

"I'm sure," said Djibril dismissively, "The two of you will likely be going up against ZAFT's new battleship at some point. Do try to destroy it this time; it'll be a nuisance to have to continually contend with that thing as the war drags on."

"The _Minerva _will fall," said Nazara, "Wing Zero abandoned that ship after the orbital battle, and none of the other pilots aboard it could come close to Heero Yuy's level of skill. They'll have no defense against us."

"They'd better not," said Djibril with a scowl, "An opportunity to strike at it will likely come soon, and we don't want to miss it."

Nazara raised an eyebrow under the mask. "I was under the impression that it was still in Orb. It's rather difficult to see how we can attack it there."

Djibril chuckled. "It won't be there for long. We're going to have our puppets in the Orb Union move the nation decisively into our camp. It won't be that hard; their Chief Representative has been effectively outmaneuvered at this point. She just doesn't know about it. Once the Orb Union has sided with us the _Minerva _will have no choice but to leave lest she be handed over to us. Our fleet will be positioned between Orb and Carpentaria. She'll have nowhere to run, and we'll be able to overwhelm her."

Nazara nodded. "What of the renegades from the last war? It's an open secret that their activities are based out of the Orb Union and its colonies. Will our friends be able to flush them out once they achieve full power over the nation?"

Djibril shook his head. "Unfortunately, that does not appear to be likely. According to our sources, the Seirans and their allies have been unable to pinpoint the exact locations of all of the enemy's hideouts. However, with their government under our control we'll have the resources required to comb the country and its territories until we're able to find them. They won't stay hidden forever."

Nazara smiled. "I look forward to the day that we're able to crush them once and for all."

Djibril smirked. "Indeed. Once we've flushed them from their hideaway in Orb they'll have nowhere else to go. ZAFT is unlikely to offer them aid given their activities in the last war, and any nation that does attempt to shelter them will face our wrath. Given that threat, I think it's safe to say that no one will be willing to take them in. They cannot survive without state support, official or otherwise. We'll corner them, wear them down, and then eliminate them. They're already on borrowed time; they just don't know it yet."

Nazara's eyes narrowed. "What about the other member states of the Earth Alliance? Can we really be sure that they won't offer them safe haven? The Eurasian Federation in particular might be trouble; they did throw out the leaders that fully supported our ultimate agenda after the end of the last war, after all."

"Moscow will fall into line," said Djibril with a confident smile, "They know that their military is not as strong as ours. Their mobile suit program relies too heavily on the advances made by us, and if we ceased sharing our expertise they would quickly fall behind. They need us and they know it. The same goes for the rest of our partners; we're the key to the Earth Alliance's might, and they cannot afford to get on our bad side by harboring a bunch of fugitives."

Nazara nodded. "Understood. Can we count on them to support our offensives going forward, though? As you said, their militaries aren't as strong as ours; they may be more reluctant to commit forces to our upcoming operations."

"They'll commit," Djibril replied, "Despite the recent setback, we should still be able to manipulate global public opinion and keep our partners in our side. After all, it was the fallout from the Break The World Incident that allowed us to move forward as quickly as we have. There's still plenty of political capital to be had from that if we play our cards right."

"Very well, then" said Nazara, "Is there anything else?"

Djibril shook his head. "Not at this time. You have your orders, Colonel."

With that he vanished from the screen, leaving Nazara alone with his thoughts. The call had gone better than he'd originally imagined, although that didn't change the sour taste it left in his mouth. It was irritating to have to show any semblance of deference to a man that he had absolutely no respect for, but he didn't have much of a choice in the matter. At least he wouldn't have to deal with another call with him for a while now that he had his next few steps planned out.

"To Luna, then," he said softly, "and then to Earth."

_I can hardly wait._

….

"No matter how much you look up there, it doesn't change the fact that you're down here," said a familiar female voice from behind him.

Leaning against the railing, Heero turned around and smiled slightly as Murrue came out to join him. Night had fallen, and after dinner he had quietly slipped outside to stargaze. Of course, his attention wasn't really on the night sky itself but rather on what he couldn't see that he knew was up there nonetheless.

"It's not in my nature to sit back and watch for so long," he said, "I'm used to being right in the middle of the action, and a few hours ago the action was up there."

Murrue smiled as she leaned against the railing beside him. "I know what you mean. If there was a way for us to have helped out up there today, I would've been right there with you."

"It might've been for the best that we sat this one out," Heero replied, "It's hard to say what ZAFT's countermeasure might've done to the reactors of our mobile suits. I'm not sure if even Gundanium alloy would be an adequate defense against that thing."

Murrue nodded. "That's true. I know Bristow's scouring his list of contacts for any scrap of information he can get on that new device, but I'm not sure how that's going to turn out. We might be flying blind for a while when it comes to that thing."

"What about Erica Simmons?" asked Heero, "She's running her own analysis, isn't she?"

"Yes," Murrue replied, "but from what I understand her ability to do a proper investigation is somewhat limited. She's relying on data from the satellites, and that's not quite as good as what she had to work with when she was on the _Kusanagi _during the last war."

Heero closed his eyes to mull that over. "I see. At least the device doesn't appear to be an offensive weapon. That should limit its deployment. Still, we need to learn as much as we can about it, and quickly."

"No argument there," said Murrue, "For the weapon to affect nukes like that, it has to be related to the N-Jammers ZAFT deployed in the last war. Those specific devices were banned by the Treaty of Junius Seven, but this new countermeasure is a different beast altogether."

"At least ZAFT's only use of it so far has been to protect the PLANTs from nuclear assault," said Heero, his gaze returning to the sky, "It was quite spectacular in that use, too. Durandal must be very pleased with himself."

Murrue sighed. "It's strange. You'd think that'd we be more relieved with the fact that ZAFT was able to successfully defend the PLANTs and prevent a massacre, but…"

"We're more worried about the implications of the technology behind their means to pull that off," Heero finished for her, "Sound about right?"

Murrue chuckled ruefully. "Pretty much. Talk about skewed priorities, huh?"

Heero shook his head. "No. I know that we're both glad that the PLANTs are safe and that millions of civilians weren't massacred. At the same time, though, it's perfectly fine to be concerned about ZAFT's new technology, especially given what they ultimately wound up building in the last war. Just because this new device appears to be defensive in nature doesn't mean that there aren't other inventions with more offensive capabilities. Now that hostilities have commenced, we have to be alert for signs that ZAFT may be developing new weapons that go beyond mere mobile suits and warships. The same goes for the Earth Alliance; we can't just assume that their nukes were their only ace in the hole."

Murrue nodded. "You're right. I just wish that we had better intelligence on both sides. For all of our power and knowledge, there's still so much that eludes us."

Heero shrugged. "We've operated with a handicap in the past. Good thing we're used to it."

Murrue smirked. "True. If nothing else, we're certainly adaptable. We've learned to make do with less, and we can still punch far above our weight class when the occasion calls for it."

Heero chuckled. "Spoken like a Gundam pilot."

"I guess you're rubbing off on me," Murrue replied as she took his hand, "I can think of worse influences in my life."

The two of them looked up at the stars together before Heero spoke again. "How's your mother taking all of this? I mean, we're about to start fighting her old country, and your father still serves in their military. That can't be easy for her."

Murrue shook her head. "I don't think she's worried about all of that so much as she is about you and me. She made a clean break from the Atlantic Federation, just like I did. To be honest, I think she handled it better than I did at times. She's a very strong woman, Heero… but I'm sure she'd still appreciate you worrying about her. I know I do."

Heero gave her a small smile. "Well, it's clear that she passed that strength onto you. She should be proud of all you've done since we first met. I know I am."

She kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks."

"Anytime," he replied.

Murrue sighed. "If we're being honest here... I think I'm the one that's worried about my old homeland. Well, more about my father than anything else."

"His message to you in the last war said that he thought you should've died at Alaska," said Heero, his voice almost a growl as he held back a powerful fury at the man that had been smoldering for two years, "He doesn't _deserve _your concern, Murrue."

"I know that," said Murrue, "but I'm still worried about possibly meeting him on the battlefield."

"You told me in the last war that he had a post in the continental Atlantic Federation itself," Heero pointed out, "I doubt we'll be heading out that way, so our odds of encountering him in combat are pretty remote."

Murrue nodded. "That's true, but there's always the off chance that he's since been moved to a field posting."

Heero met her gaze. "If he has, and we meet him on the field… I'm not holding back, Murrue. I understand why you'd still hold some concern about him even after what he's done, but if we encounter him on the battlefield then that means he'll be trying to kill you directly. I'm not about to let that happen."

Murrue's grip on his hand tightened. "I know… and I accept that. I… I won't be holding back against him either. Even if I know what ship he's on, if I get him under the _Archangel_'s guns… I'll take the shot. I won't allow him to threaten you or my crew. I'll do what I must… and shoulder the consequences."

"You won't shoulder them alone," said Heero, "I'll be with you, Murrue."

She smiled. "I know you will, Heero."

….

Staring at the computer on his desk, Eric Bristow was completely unaware that he had company until he felt a familiar hand on his shoulder. "Why don't you call it a night, dear? You won't do anyone any favors by wearing yourself out."

He looked up at his wife and smiled. "I've been at it long enough for you to worry, huh? Sorry. I know I keep telling you that I'll cut back on it, but…"

"This is important," Shemei finished for him as she nodded at the monitor, "I know, Eric, but you're not responsible for reviewing every single bit of intelligence that we gather. We've got a whole group of data analysts loyal to our cause; they're more than capable of sifting through information while you take a break."

Eric sighed. "I know they are. I guess old habits really do die hard. Back when I was a Field Marshal I used to go over every scrap of intel I could find before I ordered my troops into battle. I had plenty of analysts on my staff to help out with that, but I still wanted to have as comprehensive a grasp of the tactical and strategic picture as possible."

Shemei smiled. "It served you well. If I recall correctly, the forces you led in East Asia were among those that took the least casualties during their campaigns, and that was in no small part thanks to your diligence. I know everyone here appreciates that you give Terminal the same dedication and thoroughness that you committed to ZAFT back in the day, but we don't want you to burn yourself out on our behalf."

Eric nodded. "Yeah… I guess I really should hit the hay. Still, it's hard to just set it all aside."

Shemei leaned down to peer at the screen. "Is this for the Americans' Atlantic Fleet or the Pacific?"

"Atlantic," Eric replied, "They've been on the move for some time now, but ever since hostilities commenced they've really picked up steam. Their heading's still Gibraltar for the most part, although they may divert some forces to secure the Suez Canal too. The Eurasian Federation Navy's been on standby for a while now as well, and there's a decent chance that they could send warships to support the Americans now that the war with ZAFT's officially underway."

"What about on our side of globe?" asked Shemei, "Are they getting any support from the Republic of East Asia?"

"More than I expected," said Eric, "but less than I feared. The Republic of East Asia is expanding its naval patrols, and they could always detach a battle group or two to link up with the Atlantic Federation's Pacific Fleet, but other than that there really hasn't been much activity on their end. They seem to be focusing more on shoring up their defenses than anything else."

Shemei smirked. "They're probably afraid ZAFT's going to send another Field Marshal their way. I bet you left quite an impression on them during your campaign over there."

Eric sighed. "I doubt it was me that left the impression. Don't forget the shit that Zubov pulled out there during the last war. It didn't matter that we had him arrested; Zala's favor meant he could act with impunity. If anyone left an impression, it was him and his massacres."

Shemei took his hand. "You're not still beating yourself up over that, are you? Eric, that was two years ago, and you weren't responsible for his actions. Besides, Heero killed that monster at Alaska, along with the rest of his team. You have to let it go, dear."

Eric chuckled ruefully. "It'd be easier if the Republic of East Asia weren't littered with mass graves thanks to the shit he pulled and my failure to restrain him sooner."

"It would have even _more _mass graves if you hadn't fought with us to bring that war to an end," said Shemei, "You acted honorably and did your part to save countless more lives from suffering the same fate as his victims. Zubov may never have been brought to trial for war crimes, but justice was still served; it was just meted out in a more direct manner. You can't keep punishing yourself over the actions of monsters that you had no control over. It's not good for you, and it's definitely not good for the rest of us."

She leaned in and kissed him before continuing. "Your actions are one of the reasons the world was able to survive the nightmare of the last war, and they're a big part of why we still have a shot at setting things right this time around too. You're not our top mobile suit pilot, but thanks to you we've got a good intelligence network that helps us plan our moves so we can have the biggest impact. That's worth more than any fighting you do on a personal level, and it'll be compromised if you keep beating yourself up over the past. We're not fighting for the victims of the last war; we're fighting for the people who are threatened by _this _one, and we need you in top form if we're going to save them."

Eric couldn't help but smile. "You really know how to motivate people, don't you? Have you been getting tips from Lacus lately?"

She giggled. "I was a Commander back in the day, remember? Just ask my girls; I can give a good pep talk when I put my mind to it."

Eric chuckled. "That's right, I forgot. Man, that seems like a lifetime ago, doesn't it?"

"Sometimes, yes," Shemei replied, "but at the same time, not really. I mean, I do still lead my girls into battle, after all. As for you, you may not officially be a Field Marshal now, but your authority in this organization is pretty much on par with Andrew's. You're still a big shot on campus, dear."

Eric smirked. "Yeah, I guess so… although sometimes I think it's a miracle that we hold it all together like this. I mean, we don't even have an official rank structure. Everything's so informal. Even after two years of it I get a little disoriented from time to time."

"You've handled it pretty well from where I'm standing," said Shemei as she sat down on the edge of the desk, "You're much more capable of adapting than other people are. That's part of the reason why we've survived this long; you help keep us flexible."

Eric nodded. "Well, when you're a group as small as us you can't really afford to be rigid. Without that flexibility, our enemies would have a shot at taking us out."

"Speaking of enemies," said Shemei, "we've got more than just the Earth Alliance and ZAFT to worry about this time around."

Eric's eyes narrowed. "You're talking about Cagalli's domestic opponents, right?"

Shemei nodded. "Yup. I'm thinking that Heero had the right idea; we might really have to kidnap Cagalli. It'd be the only way to keep her from being used by the Seirans as a puppet ruler. We need to start planning for that."

"You're right," said Eric, "In fact, I was thinking about talking to Heero and the other Gundam pilots about that tomorrow. They're the ideal candidates for an extraction team."

Shemei smiled. "Can't argue with that. It really shouldn't be that hard; thanks to Kisaka we've got inside information on her security detail. All you have to do is pass that on to Heero and he'll handle the rest."

Eric sighed. "It might be easy to get to her, but I still don't know how Cagalli's going to feel about all this. She takes her duty to her people very seriously, and it might be difficult to convince her to go along with us on this."

"We'll have to figure that out one way or another," said Shemei, "I admire her commitment, but at this point her sticking with the government would really do more harm than good. Her policies might be in complete opposition to the Earth Alliance and their allies within the Orb government, but that doesn't matter if they're successfully able to undermine her. Even worse, her staying would give the Alliance an invaluable public relations tool; it wouldn't be all that hard for them to turn her into an unwilling spokesperson for them within the Orb Union."

Eric nodded. "Agreed. We'll just have to hope that she's willing to play ball with us on this. If she is, it'll be a lot easier. If not… well, you know what they say; easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission, right?"

Shemei smiled. "Works for me. We could always try to get Kira in on this, too. He's Cagalli's brother, after all; having a family member make the approach could help with the sales pitch."

Eric's brow furrowed. "Maybe, but he's not exactly trained in infiltration ops like what we've got in mind. He's one hell of a pilot, but his abilities as a covert operative are rather lacking. Having him cover an extraction might be a better use of his talents."

"Good point," said Shemei, "You know, having Lacus on hand to sweet talk her once we get her out wouldn't be a bad idea either. The two of them get along pretty well, after all."

"I like that idea," Eric replied, "and I think this is something we could convince Lacus to go along with. She's been looking for a way to play a more active role in our operations going forward, so this would be a good place for her to start."

Shemei nodded. "If you want, I can talk to her about it tomorrow. Once I get her on board I don't think it'd be too hard for her to convince Kira to join in. Plus, that'll leave you free to work something out with Heero and the other Gundam pilots."

Eric smiled. "Sounds like a plan to me."

"Good," said Shemei as she reached around him and shut off the monitor, "Now, why don't you get some rest? I think we both could use it after today."

Eric chuckled. "Can't argue with that."

….

On Aprilius One's main plaza, the tension could be cut with a knife. The opening battle of the Second Bloody Valentine War might've been over, but the people of the Coordinator capital were still in shock over the fact that they had once again come to the brink of annihilation. ZAFT's role in the defense of their homeland was to be praised, and rightly so, but the mood of the people was hardly that of a victory celebration.

"I can't believe they'd do that," one man grumbled, "First they declare war, and then they try to nuke us! What the hell?"

"At least none of the missiles made it through to us," said a woman, "Otherwise…"

"I know," said another man, "It'd be another Bloody Valentine… or worse."

"Was this retribution for what happened with the Junius Seven ruins?" asked one woman.

"No way," said a man, "That was a terrorist attack, and one that ZAFT helped to stop! They've got no excuse for what they just tried to pull!"

"They want to wipe us out again…" one woman whispered.

"They just tried to kill us all!" a man shouted, "Those bastards! We have to make them pay!"

The mood with the crowd was slowly coming to a boil. All the anger that was supposed to have been banished with the end of the last war was gradually simmering and working its way towards the surface. They had been brought to the edge of obliteration once again, and the desire to strike back by any means necessary was a natural reaction. However, that sort of fury did not distinguish between perpetrator and innocent, and it was the exact same sentiment that the old regime had harnessed to such tragic effect two years ago. If allowed to fester and grow, public opinion would quickly become toxic, and the PLANTs would once again find themselves heading down the dark road that Patrick Zala had led them to in the last war.

Could anyone restore calm and rationality to a people who had just been in the crosshairs of an attempt at genocide? Was there anyone who had the courage and charisma to even _try _to confront the mob and risk incurring their wrath?

The answer was provided a moment later. The main screen in the plaza shifted from its current news broadcast to a new image, one that was now appearing on monitors not just in Aprilius One but across the L5 colonies. It was a picture of a pink-haired girl that any Coordinator, regardless of age, interest, or occupation, would instantly recognize.

"My name is Lacus Clyne," the girl said, "People of the PLANTs, please, listen to me!"

"No way…" said a man in the crowd, "Is it… really her?"

"It has to be," a woman replied, "I remember her from the last war!"

"But no one's seen her in two years," said another man, "Why's she showing up now?"

"Shut up and listen and we'll find out!" hissed another woman.

"As I'm sure you're all aware of," said Lacus, "a great battle was just fought on the doorstep of our homeland. The heroic soldiers of ZAFT were able to repel the Earth Alliance's assault, but not before the opposition attempted to launch a nuclear strike on our colonies. However, thanks to ZAFT's peerless scientists and researchers, the PLANTs now possess a device capable of defending us from such attacks. This new device, the Neutron Stampeder, was what saved us all from utter destruction."

"So that's what caused all the missiles to explode," said one woman.

"Who cares?" said a man, "That doesn't change the fact that the Naturals just tried to kill us all!"

"Even though our homeland has been saved for the moment," Lacus continued somberly, "I fully understand that this salvation may not ease your fears. A second Bloody Valentine Tragedy has been averted, but this may be cold comfort in the face of the fact that the Earth Alliance just attempted to destroy us. I can only imagine the fear that must grip all of your hearts right now… and the anger."

"She's got that right," hissed a man.

"However," said the songstress, "to give into that terror and fury would be a grave mistake. The PLANTs cannot go down the same road that they travelled during the last war. To embrace our fear and hatred will only lead to further tragedy. Yes, it is a tragedy that we are once again at war and there are those who wish to annihilate us all, but if we allow ourselves to become consumed by the desire for revenge then we will become no better than those who attacked us today!"

"But… we can't just let this go unanswered!" cried a woman.

"What are we supposed to do?" asked a man.

"What is most important now," said Lacus, "is not that we allow terror and rage to guide our hands. We must master our fear, our anger, and remain calm. Fury unleashed is not the answer to this crisis! We must defend our homeland, but we must also remember that those we are fighting do not represent all of the people down on Earth. By answering an attempted atrocity with one of our own, it will not be those who ordered the attack against us that will suffer; it will be innocent lives that are lost, not the guilty. The PLANTs are better than that! We've grown so much over the past two years, and have learned so much from the horrible tragedies of the last war."

"What we must do now," she continued, "is place our faith in those who have dedicated their lives to defending us, and those whom we have elected to lead us. The Supreme Council and ZAFT _will _keep us safe and find a way to end this conflict, but they cannot do so without our help! It is up to us to support Chairman Durandal, to show him and those working with him that we believe in their ability to resolve this crisis without giving in to our base instincts. We must demonstrate that we are willing to support our leaders as they fight for our defense, and that to allow them the opportunity to forge our path forward. The road will be long and difficult; I have no doubt of that. However, if we stand together in faith and determination, I know that we can persevere. The PLANTs _can _survive this war, and they can do so without repeating the tragic mistakes of the past!"

"She's right," said one man, "We can do this!"

A woman nodded. "It won't be like last time… thank goodness."

Up on the screen, Lacus smiled. "People of the PLANTs… my friends… today represents both an averted tragedy and a new beginning. Let us mourn those who gave their lives to defend us mere hours ago, and then vow to make sure that their sacrifice was not in vain. Let us pledge to carry on their fight with honor and dignity, so that we may restore true peace and justice to this world. Let us move forward, support our leaders as they work to bring this conflict to a swift resolution, and dedicate ourselves to building a new world once the fighting is over, one where Coordinators and Naturals can truly live together in cooperation and friendship. This is our cause, and it is one worth fighting for."

She bowed her head. "For now, I must bid you farewell. Fear not, though; you shall see me again, and even when you do not, know that my heart is with all of you."

The iconic songstress disappeared from the monitor, leaving the gathered crowd in thoughtful silence. The boiling fury and fear that had been trapped just below the surface was already receding. Across the PLANTs, the effect was much the same. Anger gave way to hope; distrust was beaten back by belief. The people were now prepared to rally behind the Supreme Council and their Chairman. They believed that the legendary Lacus Clyne, the Angel of Peace who had brought together both Naturals and Coordinators to fight for mankind's very survival in the last war, was on their side in this new struggle.

Not a single one of them had the slightest suspicion that the messenger who had just addressed them was an imposter…

…nor were they aware that the ultimate designs of the master she served were a far cry from the ideals of the genuine Lacus Clyne.

….

"Well done, Meer!" said her government handler after the door to her dressing room closed, "You were simply marvelous!"

Meer Campbell smiled. "You really think so? Do you think they believed that I was really Lacus?"

Her handler, a black haired man in his early thirties, nodded. "My dear, if I didn't know better I would swear that _I _believed you were Lacus. There isn't a soul in all the PLANTs that could believe otherwise after _that _performance. I know how hard you've been practicing for this, and I'm so glad to see your diligent work pay off so spectacularly! Oh, I just _know _that the Chairman will be pleased with this!"

His phone rang, and Meer saw him smile as he checked the number. "Speak of the devil, that's his office line. I imagine he's calling to congratulate you on your performance. One moment, miss."

Meer waited patiently while the man addressed the caller. Sure enough, a few seconds later he passed the phone to her.

"Just as I thought," he said with a wink, "It's your biggest fan."

Meer could hardly contain her excitement as she answered the phone. "This is Meer. Is that you, Chairman?"

"Indeed it is," the smooth voice of her benefactor replied, "You put on a splendid show, Miss Campbell. You should be very proud of yourself."

Meer couldn't help but blush at his praise. "Thank you, Chairman! I promise that I'll work even harder so I'll be ready the next time that you need me!"

"I have no doubt of that," the Chairman replied, "I admire the dedication you've given to your role. I'm glad to see that my decision to have you play this part has paid off. There isn't another woman in all of the Earth Sphere who could assume the persona of Lacus Clyne as flawlessly as you have."

"You're too kind, Chairman," said Meer, struggling to keep the embarrassment from creeping into her voice.

"Rest assured, Miss Campbell," said the Chairman, "The people of the PLANTs may have been your audience tonight, but know that the entire Earth Sphere will have seen your performance before too long. You will be a shining beacon of hope for the entire world."

"Thank you, Chairman," said Meer, "As long as I can do my part to bring peace to the world, that's all that I ask."

The Chairman chuckled. "Such a modest young woman you are. If your parents were still alive I'm sure that they'd be as proud of you right now as I am."

"Mister Chairman," said Meer, "Do… do you think that Athrun saw my speech?"

"If he did not, then I imagine he'll see a replay of it soon enough," said the Chairman, "Either way, it will be impossible for him to miss it. Both of you have a vital role to play in my plans going forward, and though you have separate parts now, I'm sure that events will conspire to bring the two of you together soon enough."

Meer smiled and blushed again. "I'd like that."

"Yes," the Chairman replied, "and so would I. The two of you are strong by yourselves, but together your power will be amplified immeasurably."

"Do you think he'd want to be seen with me?" she said nervously, "I mean… he knew the real Lacus Clyne, and he knows I'm not her. Could he really come to like me?"

"I understand your doubts," said the Chairman, "but I think they are misplaced, Meer. You must have more confidence in yourself. Let your passion for your role show in your performance just like you did today, and I believe Athrun will move past his reservations. After all, he wants what's best for both the PLANTs and the world, just like you do. The two of you have much more in common than he realizes, and I believe that you can make him see that."

Meer nodded. "All right. I'll do my best, Chairman."

"I'm sure you will," he replied, "but there's no need for constant work on your part, my dear. Make sure to take a little time for yourself, all right? After today's performance, I think you've definitely earned a little break."

"Thank you, Chairman," she said, "but… well, the war's just begun. I don't think the real Lacus would take a break at a time like this, so I shouldn't either. I have to keep working hard so we can restore peace to this world."

The Chairman chuckled. "Ah, there it is; you sound _just _like her right now, Meer. Very well, then. I'll be in touch soon enough. Take care, my dear."

Meer nodded. "I will, Chairman."

The call ended there, and Meer passed her manager the phone. The Chairman's praise of her acting skills had put her in a very good mood, but she wasn't completely satisfied. It wasn't enough for her to be told that she was good at _pretending _to be Lacus Clyne.

She wanted to _be _Lacus Clyne.

Without that identity, who was she? The answer was depressing; just a girl orphaned by war. If the Chairman hadn't noticed her acting and singing talents, she'd be nobody; no more than a young woman performing with local theater groups, just trying to get by. Maybe her talents would've been recognized by someone and she could break out into show business for real, but even then her fame would be fleeting.

But to become Lacus Clyne? That was to be so much more than just a popular singer or actress. That was to become an _icon_, a figure that could have an impact far beyond the realm of mere entertainment. No one could ever love plain Meer Campbell, but Lacus Clyne? _Everyone _loved her, including Meer; she was just taking that love to its ultimate conclusion. With the name and appearance of the legendary songstress, Meer could become something far more important that she could ever hope to be with her given identity. Meer Campbell might be capable of entertaining a few audiences and making a handful of people smile, but Lacus Clyne? The entire Earth Sphere was her stage, and she had the power to bring hope and joy to countless souls. She was a beacon of peace in a world at war, and she had the adoration of _millions _because of it.

The only people who had ever loved Meer Campbell had died in the war. What point was there in holding on to an identity that no one cared for? The world would never know her, and even if it did it would have no interest in her. The world _did _know Lacus Clyne, though, and it could give her the adoration and love she had lost when her parents had been taken from her. If the price to assume the identity of Lacus Clyne was that Meer Campbell was lost forever, then so be it. She would have people that would love her again…

…even if it wasn't the real 'her'.

….

Durandal allowed himself a tired smile as he put his phone away. It had been a most eventful day, to put it mildly, and while he thrived off of the activity and the high stakes of it all he would privately admit that even he had his limits. He was very much looking forward to grabbing a few hours of sleep, but as always it was difficult to say for sure when that might be.

_Public office rarely allows for a fixed schedule_, he thought wearily, _I suppose that's one of the necessary sacrifices one makes to pursue political ambition…_

Still, based on his current itinerary he believed he was just about wrapped up for the day. There were just a handful of calls that he needed to attend to, and then he could retire for some much needed shuteye, however brief it might end up being.

As if on cue, a chime came from his desk console, and the face of his secretary appeared on the monitor a moment later. "Chairman Durandal, I hope I'm not interrupting anything, but Doctor Peron is on the other line."

Durandal nodded and smiled at the raven-haired woman. "Right on schedule, I see. He's nothing if not punctual. Please, put him through."

"Very well, sir," she replied.

The grim face of Doctor Escobar Peron, one of the leading researchers in the biotech division of ZAFT's R&amp;D sector, appeared on the screen. A First Generation Coordinator in his mid thirties, the scientist was an old friend of Durandal's, and in fact he had been one of the first military appointments the Supreme Council Chairman had made upon assuming office. As opposed to Durandal's background in genetics, Doctor Peron's area of expertise was more in the fields of bionics and cybernetics, and his research was a crucial part of the Chairman's efforts to build an effective countermeasure for what he considered to be the ultimate wild card.

"Doctor," he said, "I'm glad you were able to keep our appointment today."

"You know me, Chairman," Peron replied, "I never miss a meeting if it's been officially scheduled. I trust you won't force me to exchange pleasantries for half of our conversation."

Durandal shook his head. "Hardly. We both know that's not your style, and quite frankly it's a waste of time for both of us. I'll get right to the point; it's been some time since I've had a status update on your latest project. I'm fully aware that research such as yours cannot be rushed, but significant time and resources have already been devoted to this program. Now, tell me, Doctor; where do we stand?"

Peron sighed. "As I informed you in our last report, we were forced to switch from adult to juvenile test subjects due to the implants not taking hold with the former. It's been grim work, Durandal; we may have reduced the fatality rate, but even with the increased survivability of the subjects it's not exactly a clean operation."

Durandal nodded. "Yes, you did make me aware of the… _complications _several of the survivors have experienced. I trust they're still being treated humanely."

"Of course," said Peron, bristling slightly, "After the sacrifices they've made for us to progress this far, we owe them no less. They're being treated very well; you certainly gave us enough of a budget for that. However… the suicide rates among those who've washed out remain alarmingly high. Given the hell they've been put through, it's hard to blame them for seeking the easy way out. It's fortunate that they're all war orphans… although I suppose that carries a damnation all of its own. There's a special place in Hell waiting for the two of us when this is all over, Chairman."

Durandal's eyes narrowed. "You _knew _what you were signing up for, Doctor. You've come too far to turn back now; we both have. Now, tell me; _does it work?_"

Peron nodded slowly. "It does. The performance of the suits modified to accommodate the new pilots has been absolutely remarkable. The subjects have little to no combat experience, but their machines move as if they were piloted by seasoned veterans. They've been given an instinctive grasp over their mobile suits; man and machine synched in near-perfect harmony."

"Excellent," said Durandal, allowing himself a cold smile, "How soon can we have a deployable squadron?"

"It'll still be some time, I'm afraid," Peron replied, "The rejection rate's been reduced to forty percent, but a lot of lives were lost getting to that point. Then there's still the matter of modifying enough mobile suits to carry the new system. We have our work cut out for us, Chairman."

"Move as fast as you can," said Durandal, "The war has only just begun, and we'll need as many trump cards as we can get. You'll have all the funding you could possibly need, Doctor; make good use of it.

Peron nodded. "Of course. Will that be all?"

"Yes," Durandal replied."

"Very well," said his old friend with a glare, "Until next time, Chairman… and until we meet in Hell."

The researcher disappeared from the screen, leaving Durandal with a few free minutes before his next scheduled call. He used that time to pull up the file that detailed the project Peron was working on. The work was a gigantic leap forward for human progress…

…and a horrific step across more ethical boundaries than Durandal cared to think about.

The project name was staring him right in the face, a testament to Durandal's iron will to see his dream of a better world realized and a damning indictment of the lines he would cross to get there.

_**Ālaya-Vijñāna**_

….

**October 22****nd****, C.E. 73**

"That's absurd!" cried Cagalli, "Are you insane? There's no way I'll sign off on that!"

"Cagalli," said Unato, "please, be reasonable."

"Be _reasonable?_" Cagalli replied incredulously, "You want the Orb Union to enter into a strategic pact with a nation that just tried to slaughter nearly _thirty million people!_ If you think that I'd _ever _consent to entering into an alliance with the Americans after what they just tried to pull at L5, then you've lost your damn mind!"

"Their actions yesterday were regrettable," said Yuna, "but, as you said, they only _tried _to destroy the PLANTs; it's not like they succeeded."

It took every ounce of Cagalli's fortitude to refrain from strangling her cousin on the spot. "And you think _that's _reason enough to ignore their actions and side with them in this war? They only _attempted _mass murder and didn't actually pull it off, so we should just let that slide and ally with them? _What the hell is wrong with you?_"

"Well, it's not like they didn't have a good reason for taking such drastic action," Yuna replied, "After all, the Coordinators did try to wipe out all life on Earth in the Break The World Incident. The Earth Alliance's response was simply self-defense."

If glares could kill, Cagalli's would've struck her cousin dead. "The Break The World Incident was the product of renegades and terrorists; ZAFT mobilized to stop the attack. I was _there_, in case you've forgotten. The Atlantic Federation responded to that by blaming an entire people for the actions of a few extremists and then attempted to commit _genocide _against them! There are many actions that they could've taken that could be construed as self-defense; a nuclear strike against 119 colonies is _not _one of them!"

It might've been a _very _early morning meeting, but Cagalli didn't need the time of day as an excuse to be pissed off. What she was hearing from her uncle and cousin was absolutely disgraceful, and it would've been considered beyond the pale by her late adoptive father's administration.

_Is this how far we've fallen?_, she thought, trying to fend off the shadowy claws of despair that threatened to grab her, _Do our founding ideals mean so little now? Does basic human decency count for _nothing _with the new ruling elite?_

Unato sighed. "Unfortunately, the true facts of the Break The World Incident matter little in the eyes of the global public. What they perceive may not line up with reality, but they believe it nonetheless."

Cagalli scowled. "What's _that _supposed to mean?"

Yuna shrugged. "It means that the Naturals who make up the overwhelming majority of this planet's population feel threatened at an existential level by the Coordinators. Their hearts are telling them that the denizens of L5 attempted to wipe them out, just like what nearly happened two years ago. They are afraid… and rather angry, too."

"And that anger is the wind that is propelling events now," said Unato firmly, "The Orb Union must now decide if it will bend with that wind and ensure its survival, or stand obstinate and be destroyed by the typhoon. Make no mistake, Chief Representative; those _are _the stakes confronting us."

Yuna nodded. "The world at large has sided with the Atlantic Federation in this matter. The Earth Alliance is now fully mobilized, and their guns aren't only pointed at the PLANTs. All of the lesser nations of the world are in their sights as well; if anyone decides to go against their will on this matter, their retribution will be swift. The Orb Union suffered enough from that retribution two years ago; it cannot survive another round."

Cagalli shook her head. "The Earth Alliance may be powerful, but they can't afford to pick a fight with both us and ZAFT, especially after the losses they just took up in orbit."

"The fact that the Pacific Fleet is on our doorstep would indicate that the Americans feel otherwise," Unato replied, "and they can call upon the navies of the Republic of East Asia and the Eurasian Federation to reinforce them at any time. Our military may have recovered from the last war, but their power will not be enough to repel what the Earth Alliance is prepared to throw at us."

It was tempting to point out that Terminal would back Orb if the Earth Alliance attacked, but Cagalli held her tongue. Her policy of not officially acknowledging her friends' presence in Orb had served the group well as they'd built up their operations, but right now Cagalli was dearly wishing that she could threaten the gathered nobles and ministers with the wrath of Heero and the others if they continued down this course.

_Look at me_, she thought ruefully, _Considering using threats of armed force against members of my own government just to get them back into line. How did it come to this?_

"Cagalli," said Yuna with faux-concern so obvious that a child could've picked up on it, "I truly regret the situation that we now find ourselves in, but our hands are tied. We all have a responsibility to put the Orb Union first; the survival of our people must trump all other concerns. If Orb refuses to openly support the Earth Alliance in this war, it will not matter if we maintain an official stance of neutrality; the entire world will take that as us implicitly siding with ZAFT. We would stand alone against the might of the entire world, and we would be crushed."

Unato nodded. "History will repeat itself if we remain obstinate. The destruction of Heliopolis and the invasion of our homeland two years ago inflicted deep scars upon our people, and they haven't fully healed. ZAFT may have attacked Heliopolis in the last war, but the Earth Alliance tried to invade our surviving colonies later on in the conflict, and they have the capacity to do so again. The devastation that they can rain down upon us both here and up in space is all too real. The noble ideals of the Orb Union mean nothing in the face of that kind of firepower."

"The Earth forces have clearly restored the nuclear stockpile they once possessed in the last war," Yuna added, "ZAFT might've been able to thwart their strike, but Orb lacks that kind of defense. We must assume that the Alliance would be willing to turn those weapons against us."

"If the Atlantic Federation nuked Orb, they would lose all credibility," Cagalli shot back, "Not even Eurasian Federation or the Republic of East Asia would stand for a nuclear attack on a neutral nation. That would be a step too far; the Alliance would break apart!"

"Maybe," said Unato dryly, "but we would still be dead. The political blowback the Americans might suffer would be little comfort to an island nation of charred corpses."

Cagalli clenched her first, resisting the urge to slam it into the table. As much as she despised her uncle and cousin right now, their points regarding what the Earth Alliance could do to Orb were all too valid. Still, to ally with them after what they had just attempted to do to the PLANTs went against everything Cagalli believed in. It would be a betrayal of everything she and her friends had fought for two years ago.

Ever since assuming power in the wake of the Bloody Valentine War, Cagalli's relationship with the Seirans and their political allies had often been on the adversarial side of the scale, but she had still made efforts to work with them for the good of the Orb Union. They might've had different political views, but she had still considered them to be fellow citizens of her country who ultimately wanted the best for the people they governed. They might not exactly be close friends of hers despite the ties of family, but they were still her colleagues within the government.

For the first time, Cagalli no longer held that sentiment. When she looked at both the Seirans and the rest of the gathered nobles and minister at the conference, she did not see colleagues in affairs of state. She did not see any allies or friends among them.

She only saw enemies.

Enemies that had completely outflanked her.

Enemies that were impossible for her to fight in the manner that she was accustomed to because they were citizens of the country that she was supposed to rule.

Enemies that had spat on the legacy of her adopted father and all those who had sacrificed so much in the last war for the sake of peace and cooperation between Coordinators and Naturals.

The ugly truth was now staring her right in the face. The Atlantic Federation's Pacific Fleet had not fired a single shot, but their invasion had already been launched. It was not an invasion conducted through force of arms, though; it was through political influence. They had declared war on her without her being the slightest bit aware of it, and their forces had advanced to the point that the highest levels of her government had been completely subverted. She ruled her country in name only.

Orb had already fallen. The legacy of her adopted father, the ideals that she had hoped to encourage and foster throughout her government, now lived on only within her and her friends in Terminal. Those who claimed to have her nation's best interests at heart had betrayed everything it was supposed to stand for, and had given the Earth's dominant geopolitical power the keys to the kingdom. The country had already surrendered; she was the only one who hadn't submitted to the invaders.

"Cagalli," said Yuna, "Are you feeling all right? You look… unwell."

_Unwell?_, she thought numbly, _You and your father sold out our homeland and are about to side with those who would slaughter innocent people without a second thought. I'm not 'unwell'; I'm disgusted. I can't believe that you and I are even related; you're not even _human _anymore, you sack of shit!_

"Perhaps we should recess for a little bit," said Unato, "It has been a rather long session, after all."

Yuna smiled. "Yes, I think that's a good idea. Shall we reconvene in a half an hour?"

Unato nodded. "I think that would be best."

Their conversation was brief, but it encapsulated all too clearly just how irrelevant Cagalli had become to the governing of her own country. The rest of the assembled nobles and ministers stood up and left, not even bothering to acknowledge her as they departed the room. Unato took his leave a moment later, leaving her alone in the room with Yuna.

As the door shut he walked around the table until he was right next to her. "You do look a little under the weather, Cagalli. If you want to leave early and get some rest, the others would understand. Father and I can handle things from here."

Cagalli glared at him. "You'd like that, wouldn't you? My leaving would make things even easier for you than they already have been."

"Forgive me if I've given you some cause for offense," said Yuna, "I truly do not know what you are talking about, Cagalli."

"Don't play dumb with me!" she snapped, "How long has it been since the Earth Alliance bought you and your father? What was the promised price, Yuna? Did you wait for the highest bid, or did you lowball it to curry additional favor with the Americans?"

Yuna's eyes widened. "Cagalli, surely you can't be serious? How could you ever accuse me of betraying our homeland?"

"Because that's exactly what you and your father have done, you son of a bitch!" she growled, "Ever since I returned to Orb, you've done nothing but move to push our country into the orbit of the Earth Alliance."

"That's hardly treason," Yuna replied, "It's simply good policy. The Orb Union has everything to lose by standing against the Atlantic Federation in this matter."

"We lose everything by allowing ourselves to become subservient to them!" Cagalli shot back, "You would have us become nothing more than a puppet state of the Earth Alliance. We would then become complicit in every one of their war crimes! The Orb Union that we both grew up in would cease to exist, and it would be replaced by a satellite entity that would be a willing participant in the policy of genocide pursued by its masters in America!"

"The Atlantic Federation is only at war with the Coordinators that live under the reign of the PLANT Supreme Council," said Yuna, "I'm sure that they would leave those living as citizens and refugees in the Orb Union alone."

"That is a load of bullshit and you know it!" snapped Cagalli, "The Atlantic Federation hasn't changed one damn bit since the last war; their attack on L5 yesterday proved that. They won't rest until every last Coordinator has been murdered, regardless of whether they reside at L5 or not!"

"You're too eager to assume the worst, Cagalli," Yuna replied, "I think the trauma you experienced in the last war is affecting your judgment. I can certainly understand; your father did perish in the Atlantic Federation's invasion of our country, so it's certainly natural that you would harbor ill will towards the Americans. If you take a step back and assess the situation dispassionately, though, I think you'll find that things aren't really so black and white. The Atlantic Federation has nothing to gain from targeting Coordinators that are outside of ZAFT's sphere of influence. If you wish to protect the ones that are living in the Orb Union, the moving into the Alliance's orbit is the best way to accomplish that. You'd save so many lives, including that of your Coordinator boyfriend."

Cagalli scowled. "What did I tell you about dragging Athrun into our politics, Yuna?"

Yuna held up his hands. "Oh, I'm sorry; I completely forgot! Then again, it's not hard to see why; after all, he's abandoned us, hasn't he?"

"No, he _hasn't_," said Cagalli firmly.

Yuna smirked. "Oh, really? So that _wasn't _him that our customs agents saw boarding a shuttle for L5 before this new conflict started? That must've been one _very _convincing doppelganger, then."

"Athrun's trying to bring this conflict to an end in the manner that he thinks is best," Cagalli shot back, "He may not be in Orb right now, but he's doing what he thinks is right for both this country and the rest of the world."

Yuna folded his arms. "I can see why you'd want to think that, Cagalli; it's only natural to want to assume the very best intentions of those that we love. However, the cold hard facts point to only one conclusion; he's betrayed us. He's returned to his own people, and is now an active participant in their war against the people of Earth. He is our _enemy _now, Cagalli."

Cagalli clenched her fist. "Get out. _Now_. You won't get another warning."

Yuna sighed. "Very well. I do hope that you'll at least consider what I've said, though."

"Go to hell," she growled.

He left the room, leaving her alone with her fury. She walked over to the nearest window and opened it up. The fresh morning air felt good on her face, but it did little to ease the rage and sorrow that gripped her heart.

She may have held the title of Chief Representative, but she no longer ruled the Orb Union. She had been overthrown in all but name, and the usurpers were taking her country down the very path that she and her adopted father before her had worked so hard to keep it from. The founding ideals of the nation meant nothing to Yuna and his father; all they cared about was power and their own survival.

Their desire to move Orb into the orbit of the Earth Alliance did make sense if looked at from a purely logical perspective. The Alliance was the dominant power on the planet, after all; there was no way the Orb Union could stand up to them in a head-on clash. Cagalli had no doubt that were the Atlantic Federation to attack her country her friends in Terminal would aid her, and they would put up one hell of a fight, but even they had their limits. Even with the Orb military backing them, at best all they could hope to do was inflict such devastating losses on the Alliance as to force a withdrawal, and even then the defending forces would take casualties of their own. The Earth Alliance would pull back, lick its wounds, and then return with greater numbers. Allying with the Atlantic Federation would spare her nation the horror of a second invasion.

However, there was simply no way that Cagalli could side with a power that had already proven to the world that it had genocidal intent in this war. To support them, even if it was indirectly through logistics, would make her nation a willing backer of a campaign of mass murder. No threat of force against her country could convince her to go along with that…

…and yet, she couldn't bear the thought of how her people would suffer again if the Earth Alliance attacked her homeland.

The choice before her was an impossible one. If she went along with the Seirans, she would be placing the Orb Union firmly into the camp of the Earth Alliance. Her country would, implicitly or otherwise, be endorsing a war that had been launched with the intent to exterminate all Coordinators in the Earth Sphere. However, if she defied them and kept the Orb Union neutral in this conflict, it would simply be an invitation for the Earth Alliance to invade and inflict yet another round of death and destruction upon her people. Siding with ZAFT and seeking reinforcements from them was out of the question; the Seirans would never agree to it, and at this point they had amassed enough influence and power within her government to completely block such a move.

_No matter which way I turn, I don't have any good options_, she thought miserably, _I vowed to lead my people and carry on my father's legacy, but I've completely failed. I either defile my father's dream and the ideals that are the foundation of this country… or I condemn my people to slaughter._

_ What the hell am I supposed to do?_

….

Duo smiled as he checked the diagnostic results on the main monitor. "Looks like everything's good to go. You itching for a fight, buddy?"

There was no answer from the Gundam Deathscythe Omega, of course, but Duo didn't need one. His mobile suit was primed for action; all it needed was a time and place to start, and the L2 native was sure that he'd find both of those soon enough. Powering down his machine for the time being, he stepped outside and closed the hatch before looking around the underground hangar.

"Well, well," he said with a smile, "What do we have here?"

His eyes had settled on the Gundam Heavyarms Arsenal and its pilot. Trowa was standing just at the foot of the mobile suit, and he wasn't alone; he appeared to be chatting with none other than the lovely red-headed Wraith pilot Adaline Bellerose.

_I'll be damned_, he thought, _I haven't even made a move on my end, but it looks like the pieces are already in motion. Trowa, you sly dog; you're going for her, aren't you? Can't say I blame you. If I weren't married, I'd take a shot at her myself…_

The pretty Coordinator seemed quite animated in their conversation, while Trowa was his usual no-nonsense self. Duo patiently watched and waited for the two of them to go their separate ways, which happened a few minutes later when Adaline headed off, giving the L3 native a wave and a smile as she left.

Duo grinned as he quickly moved in. "Yo, Trowa! You got something you want to share with me?"

"What are you talking about?" he replied.

Duo punched him on the shoulder. "Don't play dumb with me, pal! I saw you chatting it up with Adaline. You're a smooth operator, you know that? When did you start gunning for her?"

Trowa rolled his eyes. "I haven't. I was working on Heavyarms, and she wanted to discuss how best I could use it in cooperation with her and her teammates. Since we're all on the same side and will likely be engaging in battle together soon, I thought it was in our best interests to explore possible combat tactics that combine my unit's firepower with the stealth capabilities of the Wraiths."

Duo smirked. "Is that all? She looked pretty cheerful, much more than a discussion on battle tactics might call for. You sure you didn't make a move on her? Even a first step's still better than nothing. I doubt she'd pass up on an invitation if you sent one her way!"

Trowa folded his arms. "I have no intention of 'sending her an invitation', as you put it. She's a professional fighter, just like us; I've engaged her purely on a level of mutual respect for her combat capabilities and those of her machine. The same goes for Priscilla and Lan."

Duo raised an eyebrow. "So you've been chatting with all three of the Valkyrie's girls, eh? You're becoming a real player, aren't you?"

"That's not what I was implying, and you know it," said Trowa sternly, "Besides, Lan Zhao appears to be engaging in a dalliance with Quatre for the time being, and I have no intention of interfering with that one way or the other."

Duo shook his head. "All right, I get that, but that still leaves two more ace pilot babes for you to take a swing at, man! That's not even counting the support personnel; I've seen a few cuties on the maintenance staff, for starters. I bet one or two of them are single, and they probably wouldn't mind a little attention from you!"

"Any 'attention' they get from me will be strictly professional," Trowa replied, clearly not in the mood to argue.

Always one to push his luck, Duo kept on prodding. "Are you sure about that? I wouldn't mind putting in a word for you. As a married guy, the least I can do for my single _compadres _is play the part of the wingman."

"That won't be necessary," said Trowa.

"Oh, I think otherwise," said Duo with a grin, "You need all the help that you can get, buddy! How else are you supposed to break the ice with one of the girls around here with that attitude of yours?"

Trowa sighed, his frustration clearly growing. "You're the only one that's trying to get me to 'break the ice' with our new female allies. As I've told you before, I'm quite fine with interacting with them in order to further our common goals, but I have no intention of pursuing romantic connections. You should surrender now, Duo; your campaign's doomed to failure."

Duo smiled. "Come on, man; you think I'd really give up that easy? Besides, I'm a Gundam pilot just like you, which means I'm a sucker for a losing battle."

"Then you'd best brace yourself for your impending defeat," said Trowa as he turned around and headed for the exit, "Catch you later, Duo."

Duo laughed. "Defeat, my ass! You're going to thank me for this before you know it, buddy!"

There was no reply from his fellow Gundam pilot, but Duo hadn't been expecting one. Trowa wasn't the type who felt that he always had to get the last word in, but his stubbornness could sometimes be on par with that of Wufei. Still, if his friend thought Duo was about to throw in the towel, he had another thing coming.

_Better watch yourself, Trowa_, Duo thought with a smirk, _Duo's Operation: Help A Bro Get Some is still in play, and will be until it succeeds!_

….

"She's at it again," said Chad Bradford.

One of the Marines charged with security duty onboard the Atlantic Federation carrier _John Paul Jones_, he cut a rather imposing figure. His buzz-cut blond hair was the typical fashion for Atlantic Federation Marines even after boot camp, and his blue eyes could be quite sharp at times, but more often than not he was actually rather laid back, especially when there was no action pending.

"You mean the girl?" asked Paul Falkland, his black-haired squadmate and buddy since their training days.

Chad rolled his eyes. "Who else would I be talking about?"

The girl in question was none other than Stella Loussier. She was pretty hard to miss considering that she was the only girl on the carrier, and to Chad's knowledge she was in fact one of the few remaining girls in the entire Atlantic Federation military after the big reorganization following the last war. It was a move that had never made any sense to him; women were just as capable of playing roles in the military as men were in his eyes, so to eject them from the service was to cut the armed forces off from a large body of recruits. There was also the fact that the new policy had been somewhat demoralizing to the troops that remained in the military by sole virtue of being male. Having women in the ranks had made the last war a little more bearable since there was always the possibility of a good hookup or two to let off some steam. Now that was no longer an option, leaving grunts like him forced to wait until shore leave for the chance to get some action. A popular rumor going around was that some of the higher ranking officers tended to smuggle mistresses and prostitutes onto their ships or bases while bribing rank and file troops to keep them quiet, but such luxury was naturally off limits to grunts like Chad and Paul.

"She looks like she's in a good mood today," said Paul with a nod.

Chad couldn't argue with that. The cute blonde girl might've been in uniform, but that didn't seem to be stopping her from twirling around on the flight deck of the carrier. There was no music playing, but the girl seemed to have found a rhythm that no one else could hear, and she was dancing to her heart's content. It was certainly an odd sight, but one that Chad actually found some enjoyment in; there was an innocence to it all that helped take his mind away from the fact that the world was at war again.

It was hard to believe that such a sweet girl was not only a mobile suit pilot, but was assigned to pilot the stolen Gaia. Chad had to wonder what made her special enough that the military was willing to make an exception to their new policy and keep her within their ranks. Perhaps she was just that good of a pilot, but it was difficult to imagine her being some sort of super-ace from looking at her now.

"What's her story?" he muttered.

"Don't you mean 'who's screwing her?'" said Paul with a chuckle.

Chad glared at him. "Dude, not cool!"

Paul rolled his eyes. "Come on, man. A pretty face like that in a military that's all men now? If some Admiral or Colonel doesn't have her in his bed, I'll eat my boots."

"But she looks so young," said Chad, "and innocent. It… it doesn't feel right."

"And you think that would stop one of the higher ups from making her their mistress?" asked Paul, "Open your eyes, dude. Just because she doesn't _look _like a whore doesn't mean she isn't being _used _like one. You know the kind of people we work for, after all."

Chad sighed; Paul's words hit much closer to home than he would've liked. "I didn't sign up to work for people like that."

Paul nodded. "None of us did, but that's the shit we have to deal with now. It's either that, or we sit back and wait for the Coordinators to kill us all."

"Do you really believe that?" asked Chad, "I don't think it's that clear cut…"

Paul shrugged. "What you and I believe doesn't make much of a difference, buddy. The higher ups think this is Round Two of what happened last time around. They don't give two shits about what leathernecks like you and I think about this whole mess."

Chad looked up at the sky. "I wonder if they've got the same problems. The people on the other side, I mean."

"Well, at least ZAFT didn't institute a dudes-only policy," Paul replied, "They may be Coordinators, but at least they still get a chance to hook up. I bet they've got some real babes in their ranks. Hell, I could defect just for that."

"Careful!" Chad hissed as he looked around nervously, "Talk like that's a one way ticket to the firing squad these days. If you die then I've got no one left to talk to on this damn boat. I'll go nuts!"

Paul sighed. "Right. Sorry."

"Seriously, man," said Chad, "You know how paranoid the brass is these days, right? If we don't watch ourselves it won't be ZAFT that kills us!"

"If Wing Zero doesn't get us first," Paul quipped, "Now that the whole world's at war again, how much you want to bet that we get the pleasure of facing that beast in combat?"

Chad shuddered. Wing Zero was the stuff of nightmares not just for Earth Alliance soldiers in general, but especially for those who were onboard warships. After all, vessels like the _John Paul Jones _were nothing but giant targets for a machine like that, and unlike the ship's mobile suit pilots he couldn't even fight back if that thing decided to target the carrier.

"I'd really rather not think about that right now," said Chad, "We've got enough crap to worry about as it is."

Paul nodded. "Can't argue with that."

With nothing better to do with their time on guard duty, the two Marines continued to watch the dancing Stella. A few seagulls had landed on the flight deck next to her, and to Chad's surprise her dancing didn't seem to be scaring them off. Quite the opposite; the birds appeared to be gravitating towards her.

"That's weird," said Chad.

"She reminds me a bit of your little sister," said Paul, "Remember back when had shore leave and you invited me to your folks' place for dinner? She was out front when we pulled up to the place, and I swear there were like four or five birds sitting not a meter away from her."

Chad nodded while trying to suppress a wave of homesickness. "Come to think of it, you're right; she does remind me a bit of Cassie. Some girls just have a way with animals, I guess."

Paul smirked and shook his head. "Chicks can be pretty odd sometimes, eh?"

Chad couldn't help but chuckle. "You got that right."

A metal hatch a few meters away from them opened up and three officers in grey and black uniforms came out. They didn't even spare a glance at the two Marines as they headed straight for the girl.

"Her handlers," Chad muttered; he'd seen the three of them with her before, and the arrangement had rubbed him the wrong way for some strange reason.

"Hope they didn't see us eying the merchandise," Paul quipped dryly.

"Stella!" called the lead officer, "It's time to come inside now!"

"Aw, but why?" the girl replied, "I'm having fun out here!"

"The Colonel wants to speak to you," said the officer.

The girl's eyes widened. "The Colonel's here?"

The officer shook his head. "No, but he's on a video conference line waiting for you. He says it's important."

Stella smiled. "Okay! I'm coming."

"So it was a Colonel, not an Admiral," Paul muttered, "What did I tell you?"

"Shut up," hissed Chad.

The girl and her handlers walked by them as they headed back inside the ship. The three officers paid the two Marines no mind, but Stella smiled and waved at them before she disappeared inside the carrier. It was such a simple gesture, but it reminded Chad all too much of the little sister he had left back in the Atlantic Federation when he'd enlisted. He didn't know the exact details behind Stella's situation, but whatever they were he was sure he wouldn't want Cassie to be in her shoes right now.

_I signed up to protect my family and my country_, he thought, _Most people enlist for the same reasons. It's as good a cause as any, so why…_

_ Why does it feel like we're the bad guys in this war?_

….

"Colonel!" cried Stella, beaming as she saw his face appear on the screen before her.

Colonel Nazara nodded and smiled. "Hello, my dear Stella. Tell me, how are you feeling?"

"Really good!" she replied, "It's so pretty down here, and the sea air smells so nice!"

"I'm glad to hear that," said the Colonel, "You'll be operating down on Earth for a while, and I was worried after you'd spent so much time in space you might feel uneasy there. I'm glad my fears were misplaced."

Stella nodded. "I'm from Earth, remember, Colonel? I'll always feel at home down here."

Nazara nodded. "Of course. Tell me, how is your training going?"

"Great!" she replied, "I feel like I've really improved. I'm ready to fight anytime you need me to!"

The Colonel smiled. "Excellent. Oh, I have some good news for you, Stella."

"What is it?" she asked.

"When I come down to Earth and we're reunited, I'll be bringing along some new friends for you," said Nazara, "They're pilots like you, and I want you to do your best to get along with them."

Stella smiled. "I will, Colonel. Promise!"

"Very good," said Nazara, "Also, have you been going to the doctors regularly like you were instructed?"

Stella nodded. "Every day, just like you told me to."

"Perfect," said Nazara, "You know that they'll tell me the moment you miss an appointment, so make sure that you keep going, all right?"

"Yes, sir," said Stella.

Nazara nodded. "That's a good girl. I'll be down to join you soon enough, so do keep up your good behavior. Until then, Stella."

"I'll see you soon, Colonel," Stella replied before he vanished from the screen.

She leaned back in her chair as the monitor went blank. That had been a lot for her to take in, and she was having trouble processing it all.

"Are you all right, Stella?" said her primary caretaker, a man she knew only as Simon.

She nodded as she stood up. "Yeah. I just… I need to use the restroom."

Simon nodded. "Of course. Once you're done, please join me in the hangar; we have another round of simulation training scheduled, and we need to keep up the progress you've been making."

Stella smiled. "Don't worry. I'll be there."

It didn't take her long to find the nearest bathroom. Once inside she went up to the mirror. The face looking back at her wasn't that smiling girl who had just spoken to her Colonel; it was of a very confused young woman.

Why did she feel so conflicted about what had just happened? The Colonel was the one person that she trusted above all others. He cared for her and kept her safe, both on and off the battlefield.

But if that was really the case…

…then how did one explain the bruises?

She pulled down the collar of her uniform, looking closely at the faint marks on her neck. There were similar discolorations on her wrists, shoulders, and her thighs, but for the life of her she did not know how she had gotten them. Whenever she tried to think about it, she could get nothing more than the briefest of flashes before her memory just blanked out. The gaps in her memory gnawed at her constantly, and although she could not understand why, a part of her mind kept telling her that the Colonel was responsible for the marks on her.

The lapses in her memory extended well past the bruises. She had been genuinely happy when the Colonel had told her that he would be bringing along some new friends for her when he rejoined her on Earth, but a tiny part of her brain had tried to tell her that she already had friends… or at least, she _used _to have them, but they were gone now. What had happened to them was a question her mind could not provide an answer for.

It got even worse when she thought about her daily visits to the carrier's chief medical officer. They were mandated by the Colonel, so naturally she made sure to never miss an appointment. The doctor was friendly enough, but after every meeting Stella always felt like a thick haze had fallen over her mind. The gaps in her memory seemed to get worse with each visit, and a small part of her mind kept trying to convince her that those appointments were the reason why.

_Why do I feel this way?_, she thought as she looked at her reflection, at a complete loss for words, _The Colonel and the doctor are my friends. They care about me… right? They're the ones that look after me and keep me healthy so I can fight for them. They wouldn't do anything bad to me…_

It was impossible to be certain of that, though. The quick flashes she sometimes had were never pleasant experiences, and the nightmares she had every time she went to sleep spoke of more horrors buried deep in her mind. In her waking hours she was mostly able to bury her doubts and carry on with her duties, but they were still lurking in the shadows just the same.

There was a knock on the bathroom door, followed by the voice of another one of her handlers. "Stella, are you still in there? It's time for training!"

"I…I know!" she stammered, "I'll be out in a minute, I promise!"

She sighed. She didn't have time to be worrying like this. The Colonel was counting on her to make herself stronger before he arrived, so that was what she had to do. If she couldn't become stronger, then she wouldn't be useful to him anymore. If she wasn't useful anymore, then… well, she didn't want to think about what might happen then.

….

"Damn it!" Lan growled as she slammed her fist against the simulator console, "How the hell did you see me coming, Quatre? I was invisible, for crying out loud!"

The face of her friend-with-benefits appeared on the monitor with an all-too cute and disarming smile. "Whenever you cloak, your most common attack vector is from either the rear or one of the flanks. I took a gamble based on your previous attack patterns and was able to intercept you this time. To be fair, though, you came pretty close to beating me. One wrong move on my end and I'd be the one cursing right now."

Lan couldn't help but laugh. "You really don't seem like the type to get that angry. Although it would be kind of funny to see you like that."

He looked down, and Lan was surprised to see what looked like _shame _in his expression. "I have gotten angry in the past, Lan… and a lot worse than swearing happened when I did."

Clearly she'd hit a raw nerve, and Lan was torn between wanting to pry deeper and trying to avoid making things worse. "Quatre, I…"

Quatre smiled and shook his head. "It's all right. Come on, let's grab something to drink. I don't know about you, but I could definitely use a break after that last round."

Lan nodded. "I'm with you there. Be right out."

She powered down the simulator and opened the hatch. As she got out she saw Quatre climbing out of the one right next to hers. The high-tech devices were yet another benefit of Terminal's connections within Morgenroete; they had access to some of the most advanced training equipment in the Earth Sphere.

_Thank you, Erica Simmons_, she thought, _These things are pretty incredible. The programming's highly adaptable; I still can't believe they're able to recreate units like the Wraiths and Quatre's Gundam with such precision and detail._

It didn't take long for the two of them to get from the underground hangar to the mansion on the surface. From there they went to the kitchen, poured themselves some water, and went out onto the back deck. The crisp and cool breeze felt great on her face after the matches she'd gone through with Quatre.

"Beautiful day," said Quatre as he leaned against the railing, "It's almost enough to make you forget that the world's at war again."

"Yeah," said Lan softly, her mind still on their conversation from down in the hangar.

She must have been doing a poor job of hiding her uneasiness, because Quatre turned to her and smiled. "You're allowed to ask, you know."

Her eyes widened slightly. "What do you mean?"

Quatre shook his head. "You don't need to hold back, Lan. I know you've got questions after the way I acted after our match. We haven't known each other that long, but given all that we've done together in that short amount of time… well, let's just say I've gotten pretty comfortable around you lately."

Lan smiled, and she was surprised to feel the heat come rushing to her face; she was blushing like a schoolgirl. "It's really okay with you?"

Quatre nodded. "It is. Besides, after all you've told me about your past, it would be wrong for me not to return the favor."

"Well, when you put it that way," said Lan cautiously, "then… yeah, I've definitely got some questions. I just… well, I don't really know where to start."

"I might be able to help you with that," Quatre replied, "Tell me, what do you know about Wing Zero?"

Lan raised an eyebrow; she hadn't been expecting that mobile suit to factor into the conversation, but since Quatre was playing along with her she figured she might as well go with it. "Well, it's Heero's machine, ridiculously powerful, has a unique operating system that actually interfaces directly with the pilot's mind, and its design was the basis for the rest of the Gundams in your world. How's that for a summary?"

Quatre nodded. "Pretty good. I'm honestly a little surprised, actually; that's more than I thought Heero would reveal to you guys."

"We've gotten him to open up a little over the past two years," said Lan, "Although Murrue did most of the hard work for us."

Quatre smiled. "I can imagine that. She does seem to have a way with him."

"Yeah," Lan replied, "Anyway, what's Wing Zero got to do with you getting angry and bad things happening?"

He looked out at the sea, and Lan saw a dark look in his eyes. "Did you know that Heero wasn't Wing Zero's first pilot?"

Lan's eyes widened; _that _was news to her. "No… I didn't. So… who was?"

Quatre closed his eyes for a moment before responding. "It was me."

If Lan's jaw could've dropped any further it'd be on the floor. This was a bombshell if ever she'd heard one. Ever since Wing Zero had arrived in the Cosmic Era, the insanely powerful mobile suit had been inextricably linked with Heero Yuy. It was utterly impossible for most people to think of one without the other. Mobile suit pilots across the Earth Sphere would flip their shit if they found out that another pilot had wielded Wing Zero before the man who had killed Azrael and destroyed GENESIS had taken control of it.

And yet, there was something wrong with the way that Quatre was treating the subject. Any pilot that Lan could think of would've considered piloting Wing Zero to be a point of great pride, but Quatre almost seemed _ashamed _of it. Something was very wrong here, and Lan couldn't help but wonder if she was treading upon ground that she wasn't supposed to be on.

"Okay…" she said nervously, "How… how did that happen?"

Quatre sighed. "Do you remember what I told you about my father? That he and I didn't always see eye to eye?"

Lan nodded. "Yeah. What's he got to do with this?"

"He was murdered during the war," said Quatre, "In addition to being head of the Winner family and its associated businesses, he was also in charge of a combined resource colony that was part of our conglomeration. However, he was voted out of power due to disagreements with others who had worked to arm the colony and wanted it to manufacture weapons. The colony was handed over to OZ, and rather than see them build tools of war he detached the resource satellite from the rest of the habitat. The new rulers used the beam cannons recently installed on the colony to destroy the resource satellite… and murder my father."

"Shit," Lan hissed, "Quatre… I'm so sorry."

Quatre shook his head. "That's not the worst part. One of the scientists who had helped create the five Gundams we used in Operation Meteor was connected to my family, and much of his work was stored in the Winner archives. Consumed by grief and rage, I scoured the archives for the means to strike back. I told myself I was doing it to rid outer space of all weapons, but in reality, all I wanted was revenge. In the depths of sorrow and fury, I found the _last _thing someone in my mindset at the time should've found; the designs for Wing Zero. With my family's resources it was a relatively easy matter to construct the Gundam in secret. I thought I was just building a weapon that I could use to fight back against OZ and the colonies that had betrayed us. I knew nothing about the ZERO System… until it was far too late."

_So _he _was the one that built it_, thought Lan, struggling to process it all, _Heero never said a word. Then again, it's not like we pressed him on it._

"What happened?" she asked cautiously.

Quatre sighed. "The short version? I went _insane_, Lan. In my mind, all of outer space had become my enemy. Every colony in the Earth Sphere was a potential target, and it didn't take me long to find one. The first habitat I destroyed was an OZ resource satellite… and the next one was an actual colony."

Lan couldn't help but gasp. It had taken an entire Earth Alliance strike force to penetrate ZAFT's defenses and carry out the Bloody Valentine massacre at the start of the last war. If Quatre was telling the truth, he had accomplished the same level of mass destruction _singlehandedly_. It was a testament to the true power of Wing Zero, along with the terrifying capabilities of its insidious operating system.

"The colony itself had actually been evacuated before I made my strike," Quatre continued, "The only ones left on it were OZ military personnel. Still, I didn't know that at the time of my attack… and even if I had, it wouldn't have stopped me. It took Heero and Trowa to bring me back to my senses… and I almost killed both of them in the process."

She reached out to take his hand. "I can't imagine what that must've been like. What you went through, and what the ZERO System did to your mind…"

Quatre shook his head. "I can't let the System serve as a means to dodge what I did. Wing Zero doesn't force a pilot down the path of evil; it simply amplifies the demons it finds within you. The sheer force of will required to control it was far beyond me at the time I piloted it. I should've realized why Instructor H and the others never went so far as to actually construct that Gundam; they knew that they had designed a weapon that could overpower its pilot and become the enemy of all mankind. The warning signs were right in front of me, but I let my anger and grief get the better of me. If it weren't for my friends… well, I wouldn't be here today, and countless innocent lives would be lost as well."

Lan smiled, doing her best to encourage him. "But you _are _here, Quatre. Heero and the others brought you back before it was too late. You survived your war and made it out here to my world. You've learned from your mistakes since then, and because of that I was lucky enough to meet you."

She was relieved to see him return her smile. "Yeah. In a way, it was a good thing that I got to experience the ZERO System first. Heero wound up going into a rampage a little while later, and I was the one to pull him back that time. I wouldn't have been able to accomplish that if I didn't know firsthand what that System was capable of. It was because of that experience that I was able to save Heero and give him the opportunity to eventually master the System. From there… well, the rest is history."

She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "History that I now have the privilege of being a part of."

She had the satisfaction of seeing him blush. "Yeah, looks like it. You know… you're taking this all pretty well."

"Yeah, well, I figure that I owe it to you to hear you out," Lan replied, "It's the least that I can do for you."

"So… it really doesn't bother you that I blew up an entire colony?" Quatre asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, I'm not exactly thrilled about it," said Lan, "but I'd say that there were definitely some extenuating circumstances involved there. Besides, you said that it was evacuated, so it's not as though you committed your own Bloody Valentine."

"Perhaps," said Quatre, "but I still came pretty close to doing that."

She looped her arm through his. "You can't beat yourself up over that forever, Quatre. Yeah, you made a mistake, but your friends stopped you before you went too far. More importantly, you're self-aware enough to avoid making that mistake again. You learned your lesson, Quatre. That's enough for me."

Quatre nodded. "You're right about that. Actually, I was even able to successfully use the ZERO System later on in the war, and that experience helped me handle it."

Lan's eyes widened. "Really? I would've thought you'd steer clear of that System after what happened with you and Wing Zero."

Quatre chuckled. "Believe me, I wanted to, but Heero had other ideas."

"What do you mean?" asked Lan.

"Later on in the war," said Quatre, "The five of us united to fight against the colonial extremist group known as White Fang. They'd seized a massive battleship and a ton of Mobile Dolls, and we needed every possible edge we could get to take them on. Our Gundams certainly helped with that, but they weren't enough. The enemy had a modified version of the ZERO System that they were using to direct their Mobile Dolls in combat, and we needed a way to counteract that. I wanted Heero to act as our leader in combat since he could successfully use the ZERO System by then, but he refused."

Lan raised an eyebrow. "Why's that?"

"Because he had to focus on his own enemy," Quatre replied, "White Fang didn't just have Mobile Dolls guided by a modified ZERO System; they had their own Gundam which utilized it as well. In fact, your flight lead pilots an upgraded version of that machine."

Lan was stunned. "Wait, you mean these guys had the original Epyon?"

Quatre nodded. "Yes, and it was piloted by Zechs Merquise. Heero might talk about how the five of us are all equal when it comes to skill, but we know the truth; there's only one pilot in our world who's truly an even match for Heero, and it's Zechs. There was no way Heero could direct us in combat and fight against the Epyon at the same time, so that duty fell to me. I installed the ZERO System in Sandrock… and I was able to use it without going on a rampage."

Lan nodded. "Well, that's definitely a good thing. Still, after what you went through, I can't believe you were willing to risk using the System again."

Quatre sighed. "I'm with you there. We didn't really have a choice, to be honest. We were ridiculously outnumbered, and since Mobile Dolls don't have actual pilots they don't suffer from the weaknesses inherent in the human body. Individually they couldn't match us head to head, but with their numbers and the coordination provided by the modified ZERO System it would've been just a matter of time before they'd have worn us down. Through the ZERO System installed on Sandrock I was able to effectively coordinate our group, and we were able to fend off White Fang's attacks."

"Is that System still installed on your Gundam?" asked Lan.

Quatre shook his head. "No. I got rid of it after I knew I could effectively lead us into battle without its help. I'm glad I did; I hated having that thing hanging over me, and it's incredibly stressful to have to fight while using it. That's one of the reasons why I think Heero's the strongest out of all of us; every time he goes into battle, he's using the ZERO System. The mastery he's achieved over it was matched only by Zechs in our world… and it seems by your flight lead in this one."

Lan sighed. "You know, it wasn't easy for Shemei to get a handle on that thing. It was really touch-and-go there for a while. To be honest, I started to think that she wasn't going to be able to do it. Hell, I wanted her to stop training with it, and I know I wasn't the only one. I was afraid that it would destroy her."

Quatre nodded. "That's a fear that you were very much justified in having."

Lan smiled. "I'm just glad that I was wrong. She handled it fine in the battle up in orbit. I wish she didn't have to deal with it at all, but it seems she's gotten a good grip on it now."

"I hope it stays that way," said Quatre.

Lan nodded. "Me too."

She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to put her thoughts in order. "Quatre?"

"What is it?" he replied.

"Do… do you think we can do this?" she asked, "Win this war, I mean."

Quatre raised an eyebrow. "Where's this coming from?"

"You saw how far the Earth Alliance is willing to go yesterday," she said, "Their opening move for this war was to launch a nuclear strike on the PLANTs. They'll stop at _nothing _to wipe my people out. There's also ZAFT to worry about. I mean, they're not the aggressors in this fight, but Shemei and the others don't trust Durandal, and that's enough for me to be nervous. We might have to take on both sides. I know we pulled it off before, but it wasn't exactly a walk in the park."

Quatre nodded. "I can't blame you for having doubts. Honestly, I'd be questioning your sanity if you didn't have any. We're outnumbered pretty badly, and we know for sure that at least one side has completely thrown its moral compass out the window. The stakes for this fight are as high as the ones in the last war. We may have an advantage in pilot quality and technology, but the odds are definitely stacked against us."

Lan sighed. "I know. What's worse is that this will be just like the last war; winner takes all. The Earth Alliance will show no quarter for my people, and they'll extend that policy to any other enemies they have in the Earth Sphere. It won't just be Coordinators that suffer; everyone in Terminal will be hunted to the ends of the Earth, and the Americans won't stop until they've killed every last one of us."

"That's just one more incentive for us to fight with everything we've got," said Quatre firmly, "We have everything to lose, and we know it. Our enemies are ruthless, but they won't fight with the same level of determination as us."

"Determination's all well and good," said Lan, "but I'd rather have more resources in our corner. We're good, but we're not invincible."

Quatre smiled. "I know, but I think we've still got a shot at pulling this off. Our enemies may have us outnumbered, but their resources will be deployed on multiple fronts. The Earth Alliance and ZAFT will have the bulk of their forces fighting each other; they won't be focusing on us. That gives us greater freedom of movement and the chance to hit them from the flanks. Besides, we're not actually looking to win this war in the traditional sense, but find a way to stop the fighting before Coordinators or Naturals are massacred. There could be multiple paths to achieving our goal; force of arms is merely one of the tools at our disposal."

Lan nodded. "I get what you're saying, but still… if we fail, this is the end of the line for us, Quatre. We've got nowhere to run... unless you'd be willing to offer us asylum in your world."

"Of course I would," Quatre replied without hesitation, "If it comes down to it, I'll vouch for you and everyone else in Terminal. I don't think you'd find much opposition from my friends back home, and we're connected to some pretty powerful people in the Earth Sphere Unified Nation government too. Still, that kind of talk's a little premature. I, for one, think that we've still got a chance to pull this off, and if Heero's taught you anything about us Gundam pilots, it should be that we don't throw in the towel that easily."

Lan couldn't help but smile. There was a gentle confidence to Quatre that she found to be quite infectious. It was easy to see why Heero had wanted him to lead the other Gundam pilots during their war; he could be pretty charismatic when he put his mind to it.

"Well, I wasn't planning on giving up so early myself," she said, "Still, it's nice to know that we've got a place to run to if this all goes south. Hopefully Erica will have been able to come up with a way to get us all to your world by then should it come to that."

Quatre nodded. "I've already given her the data she would need for that. She did say that it would be a few months before anything concrete would be ready, though, so we've at least got to hold out until then."

"Right," said Lan, "Well, I think I'm about as ready for a fight as I'll ever be. You?"

"Well, I'm never exactly eager to hit the battlefield," said Quatre, "but I'm ready to engage. For us, it all comes down to when and where. Timing's crucial when you don't have overwhelming numbers on your side."

Lan nodded. "We learned that during the last war. I just hope we'll be able to make good use of those lessons this time around."

Quatre smiled. "Your group has some pretty smart leaders, Lan. I wouldn't be too worried about that."

Lan smiled and kissed him. "You know just what to say at just the right time, don't you? I like that."

She had the satisfaction of seeing him blush. "I wouldn't go that far. Half the time I feel like I'm just winging it."

"Well, you're good at it," said Lan, "You know how to put a girl at ease, and I for one appreciate that. I'm glad you found your way out here, Quatre. I know what's coming isn't going to be easy to handle, but I feel a hell of a lot better about our chances with you by my side. Thank you, Quatre."

"Anytime, Lan," he replied.

….

"Are you doing all right?" asked a familiar voice from behind him.

Athrun nearly jumped out of his boots before he turned towards Heine. "I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, it's just that you've been a little withdrawn since the fighting yesterday," Heine replied as he joined him by the viewport, "Then again, for all I know that's the way you always are after a battle. If that's the case, I can leave you be if you want."

Athrun shook his head. "It's all right."

The two of them were in one of the lounges that were set aside for the carrier _Gondwana_'s many mobile suit pilots. With the way the ship was currently oriented Athrun had a decent view of the L5 colonies, and it was there that his attention had been focused for quite some time.

Heine wasn't wrong when he'd said that Athrun had been withdrawn following yesterday's engagement, but it wasn't actually due to the battle itself that Athrun had retreated inward. Rather, it was due to the speech that Durandal's 'Lacus Clyne', or as he knew her, Meer Campbell, had given shortly after the fighting had ceased.

The Supreme Council Chairman clearly taken a great deal of time and effort to train his puppet, and based on the performance she had given the other day Athrun could see why he had selected Meer Campbell for the role. Her speech had been quite effective, and if one didn't know the real Lacus Clyne as well as Athrun did it was one that was quite easy to imagine the genuine article giving. The word choice and tone of the speech had been carefully calibrated to suit both the situation and the audience, and Athrun had actually watched it several times since then to compare Meer's performance versus what he had seen from Lacus in the past.

Had the others in Terminal seen the broadcast? Had Lacus seen it? Given Terminal's intelligence connections within ZAFT, Athrun had a hard time believing that his friends would remain ignorant of the broadcast for long. How would they react when they saw the speech? Obviously they would instantly know that the Lacus in that address was a fake. Would they take steps to expose her, or let it slide for now?

For all of Athrun's initial misgivings when Durandal had revealed the existence of Meer Campbell as a fake Lacus Clyne to him, after watching the speech he was coming to appreciate more what exactly the Chairman had done. If the real Lacus had given more speeches like that to the public during the Bloody Valentine War, it was entirely possible that the people would not have been seduced by the path of hatred and violence that his father had led them down. If Durandal was using Meer as a means to keep the people calm and prevent them from embarking on another campaign of genocide, Athrun couldn't exactly call that a bad thing. Maybe it was a little underhanded, but if it preserved the peace within the PLANTs and served to keep the people's fear and anger in check, then it could very well be worth the deception.

"So," said Heine, snapping Athrun out of his thoughts, "I finally got my report sent off to the Chairman. I imagine with all he's got on his plate it might take him a little while to get to it, but since I'm a member of FAITH it should get moved close to the top of the pile."

"Should I be worried?" asked Athrun.

Heine shook his head. "Honestly, it was pretty hard for me to find anything to complain about. Your performance in the battle yesterday was superb. The final judgment call is naturally still the Chairman's to make, but based on everything I saw yesterday I'm pretty sure he's going to want to bring you into our organization."

Athrun raised an eyebrow. "Really? What happens then?"

Heine shrugged. "Hard to say. It all depends on where he thinks you'll be able to do the most good. If I had to place a bet, he'll probably send you down to the surface. ZAFT's already mobilizing to shift a good deal of resources down there, so there's no reason why he wouldn't include a pilot of your skill in Operation: Spear Of Twilight."

"Spear Of Twilight?" Athrun echoed, "I'm not sure that I've heard that term before."

"No surprise there," Heine replied, "It just came down the pipeline a little while ago. Long story short, it's the Defense Council's plan to beef up our surface forces. They're sending down ships and mobile suits to reinforce Gibraltar and Carpentaria before the enemy's able to completely cut them off. The battle yesterday actually helped things out a great deal on that end; since the Earth Alliance is consolidating its remaining orbital forces after taking such heavy losses, they're not deploying fleet groups to intercept the reinforcements before they move into position for their descent to the surface."

Athrun nodded. "I see. So if I'm likely to be included with the reinforcements heading down to Earth, would it be safe to say that the same applies to you?"

"Sooner or later, yeah," said Heine, "I haven't received official orders from the Chairman yet, but I imagine it's just a matter of time at this point."

"Is it always like this?" Athrun asked, "You do a job and then just sit around and wait for the next assignment from the Chairman?"

Heine nodded. "More or less. It's not all that different from the regular forces, really."

"The regular forces usually run through drills in the time periods between major operations," said Athrun replied, "They have Captains and Commanders to organize those; the higher ups don't need to micromanage them there. FAITH reports directly to the Chairman, though, so it lacks that same structure. I highly doubt that the Chairman takes the time to personally issue you orders for training exercises."

Heine chuckled. "Yes, he's a little too busy running a nation to handle small items such as that. FAITH pilots are expected to keep their skills sharp, but how we do that is up to each individual member of the organization. There's plenty of incentive for one to maintain a training regimen; those whose skills are found to be lacking can be removed from the organization. The Chairman and the Supreme Council appoint us; they can force us out at anytime and for any reason that they see fit."

"I see," said Athrun, "Are there performance evaluations?"

"Not in the traditional sense of the term," said Heine, "Rather, the after action reports for our missions serve as our evaluations. Since every battle is unique it's naturally impractical to develop a one-size-fits all set of standards to judge FAITH members by, but there are still certain factors that the Chairman and the Supreme Council take into account when deciding whether or not to eject a soldier from our ranks."

"What would those be?" asked Athrun.

"The ability to follow orders and complete the mission at hand are the most obvious ones," said Heine, "Beyond that it can get more complicated. FAITH members are expected to display a great deal of initiative in combat; the Chairman wants us to be more flexible and proactive than the rank and file forces. We're given a great deal of latitude in the field, and a pilot's inability to properly exercise that increased flexibility and authority can be taken as a sign of them being overly rigid, better suited to operating with the regular forces rather than our group. Kill counts are taken into consideration, although they're actually a relatively small factor. What FAITH is really meant to provide is a group of soldiers who can exercise their greater authority and freedom in a manner that proves decisive in both individual battles and larger campaigns. Naturally, there's a great deal of variability in what fits that criteria."

Athrun's eyes narrowed. "It sounds pretty subjective. Doesn't that pave the way for the Chairman to pick and choose favorites regardless of ability?"

"It's not a perfect system by any means," Heine admitted, "but it's in the Chairman's interest to be as objective as possible in order to ensure that he has the most efficient fighting force at his disposal."

Athrun folded his arms. "Just the Chairman's? I thought the Supreme Council had an interest in our performance as well."

Heine sighed. "Poor word choice on my part. Although… if we are being honest here, the office of the Chairman tends to play a larger role in FAITH's day-to-day matters than the Supreme Council. The Council does have a great deal of power when it comes to our affairs in theory, but in practice they don't exercise it as much as the Chairman does."

"Is that intentional or coincidence?" asked Athrun.

"I can understand your misgivings," said Heine, "Especially with regards to your experience with our predecessors. Your father wielded the Special Operations Squadrons as a Praetorian Guard, and I can tell that you're concerned about Chairman Durandal utilizing FAITH in a similar manner."

"The thought had crossed my mind," Athrun quipped dryly, "I'd rather avoid any reruns of my father's administration."

"A sentiment shared by the Chairman and those of us who belong to FAITH, I can assure you of that," Heine replied with a smile, "The power that the Supreme Council holds over our organization is quite real; they need only choose to exercise it."

It wasn't the best reassurance that Athrun could ask for, but at this point he supposed it was the best he could get. He supposed he was being a little paranoid in any case; from all the indicators he'd seen so far, Chairman Durandal seemed to be ruling the PLANTs in a much calmer and more even-handed manner than Patrick Zala had. If nothing else, the Chairman and his public surrogates had avoided the same vitriolic bile that the late head of the radical faction had espoused, and that was definitely a step in the right direction.

Athrun nodded. "Well, as long as the system that's set up avoids repeating the mistakes of my father, I suppose I can't ask for more than that."

"All I ask of you is that you give both FAITH and the Chairman a chance to prove our sincere desire for reform and ethical conduct in this war," said Heine as he put a hand on Athrun's shoulder, "If anything, I'm glad to hear you voicing such concerns, and am even more hopeful that the Chairman will induct you into our organization because of them."

Athrun raised an eyebrow. "Wait, I'm confused. You want me to be brought into FAITH _because _I'm worried about it being misused?"

Heine nodded enthusiastically. "Oh, quite so! You have an absolute treasure trove of experience with how groups like ours can be put to dark purpose thank to the events of the last war. I think that having you as a FAITH member could serve as a useful check and balance for our organization. You have the clarity of mind and the knowledge to see if we are following in the footsteps of our predecessors, and I know that you would have the courage to voice your opinions and make us stop to reconsider our course of action. I believe that you could provide a means to help us stay true to our founding vision; to serve the Chairman and the Supreme Council as an elite force with the power to not only make a difference on the battlefield but also help keep ZAFT and the PLANTs on the right path."

Athrun was surprised by Heine's sincerity. Before meeting the young man, Athrun might've assumed that the ZAFT Red would take a position of absolute loyalty to the Chairman due to being brought into the FAITH organization. The devotion was there as far as he could tell, but Heine also seemed to have a genuine interest in taking steps to make sure that FAITH could be held accountable and kept on the right path regardless of the Chairman's desires.

_If I'm brought into FAITH_, he thought, _that could be my ticket for making the biggest difference in this war, both on and off the battlefield. It'll give me greater flexibility and authority, which means I can maximize my impact during combat while at the same time working within ZAFT to make sure it doesn't start turning in the direction my father took it in the last war._

In the end, he nodded and smiled. "Well, if that's how you really feel, then I hope the Chairman does see fit to bring me into your group. It'll be an honor to join such an elite organization, and a privilege to help it maintain an ethical standard of conduct in this war."

Heine held out his hand. "Well said. I'm looking forward to working with you in the future, Athrun."

Athrun shook his hand. "Likewise, Heine."

….

"Heero!" said Lacus with a smile as her friend entered the room, "Thank you so much for agreeing to meet me here like this! I hope I didn't take you away from anything important."

"It's all right," Heero replied as he joined her at the table next to the window, "I was just going over some the intelligence we got on yesterday's battle with Murrue. There's a lot of material to go over there, and we were planning on taking a break anyway."

Lacus nodded. "I see. If you wish to take a moment to rest your mind, I'd be more than happy to reschedule this."

Heero shook his head. "No, it's fine. You said this was important to you, and I don't like to keep my friends waiting."

"I appreciate that," said Lacus before nodding at the cups and pot before her, "I made some tea in preparation for this. Would you like some?"

"Thank you," said Heero, "Yes, please."

As she poured the tea she saw Heero look out the window. "Where's Kira at?"

"He's over at the _Archangel_'s secret dock working on the Freedom," said Lacus, "That's why I wanted to meet with you now; I wanted this to remain between the two of us."

"Is something wrong?" asked Heero, "Did you two have an argument?"

Lacus smiled and shook her head. "Oh, no, it's nothing like that at all! I just didn't want to worry him. You know how he can be sometimes."

Heero chuckled. "Indeed. He's a brilliant pilot and a good friend, but… well, he can still get overly emotional from time to time. His heart's in the right place, though."

"I agree," said Lacus, "I'm glad the two of you have remained close since the last war. I know that Kira values your friendship quite highly, and sees you as a role model. He really looks up to you, Heero."

Heero sighed. "That's good to hear, but he can do better for role models than me. I'd rather he avoid making the mistakes that I did."

Lacus reached across the table and laid her hand over his. "I know that your past is dark, but I have also known you long enough to see you strive for atonement and redemption. Your actions both in the last war and since then are proof enough for me that you are on the right path. I'm sure that Murrue thinks the same."

Heero gave her a small smile. "She does, and she's made that quite clear over the past two years. You didn't ask to meet me to discuss the path I'm currently on though, did you?"

Lacus took a sip of her tea. "No, I'm afraid I did not. I have some concerns regarding yesterday's battle that I wanted to discuss with you."

"The battle itself," said Heero, his eyes narrowing, "or what happened afterwards?"

Lacus closed her eyes, taking a moment to gather her thoughts. She should've known that Heero would cut right to the heart of the matter; his powers of insight were nearly as formidable as his piloting abilities.

"The aftermath, to be precise," she said, opening her eyes and meeting his gaze, "I trust you, Mister Waltfeld, Mister Bristow and the others to handle analysis of the engagement itself and draw the appropriate conclusions, but my focus lies on the actions of the current PLANT administration after the fighting ended."

Heero nodded. "That speech the imposter gave to calm the populace… I wouldn't exactly call it vintage you, but it was well crafted and expertly delivered. Durandal put a great deal of work into your doppelganger."

"You're that confident that his hand is directly at work here?" asked Lacus, her eyes narrowing.

"Yes," Heero replied, "This isn't some mid-level administrator's doing. Your image and reputation hold incredible power, and they're not to be used lightly. At the same time, there're also the resources given to that broadcast to consider; that address was heard throughout L5. It takes serious backing to arrange something like that. The question's not whether Durandal was behind this; it's how long has this been in the making, and why did he only choose _now _to play this card."

Lacus sighed. "To be honest, I'm torn regarding this matter. On the one hand, her speech yesterday was clearly meant to reassure the people of the PLANTs and keep them from giving into their fear and anger. That's a laudable goal, especially if it keeps them from embracing the same demons that brought us to the brink of annihilation in the last war. If that were all there was to this, then I would be tempted to let this slide. After all, it's not as though I've maintained a public profile over the past two years, and if this girl and whoever's backing her are able to keep the peace in L5 then it may very well justify the slight-of-hand. However…"

"We have to wonder what _else _Durandal and his administration intend to use her for," Heero finished for her, "Does that sound about right?"

Lacus nodded. "Yes."

Heero took a sip of his tea before speaking again. "A calming and charismatic voice can be used to advance multiple agendas. I don't believe that Durandal intends to limit ZAFT's role in this war to a simple defensive campaign. He has a broader vision, and he would need popular support in order to bring it to fruition. If the people believed that Lacus Clyne was backing him, then that could act as a means to assuage whatever doubts they might have. The imposter would be incredibly valuable as a propaganda tool…that is, so long as the deception was maintained."

His eyes met hers, and Lacus was struck by the darkness in his gaze. "The question then becomes this; how far will Durandal go to keep up the masquerade?"

Lacus shuddered at the _very _clear implication. "Do you think he'd really…?"

"I think we need to talk to Eric about increasing our security here," said Heero grimly, "This doppelganger act might currently be keeping the peace in the PLANTs, but from where I'm sitting it's also painted a giant target on your back. If the imposter is exposed, she loses all her power. It's impossible to say for sure what lengths Durandal will go to in order to keep her secret safe, and I don't want to take any chances here."

"I pray it doesn't come to that," said Lacus, "but I can certainly appreciate your desire to take precautions. Thank you, Heero."

Heero shook his head. "You don't have to thank me. What kind of friend would I be if I didn't do all I could to keep you safe?"

Lacus smiled. "Still, you have my gratitude all the same. Kira's as well, I imagine."

There was a moment of silence as the two of them drank their tea and Lacus tried to process everything Heero had told her. This wasn't the first time she might potentially have someone gunning for her; the Zala regime had certainly tried its best to kill her in the last war. Oddly enough, it wasn't _her _safety that she feared for, but that of her friends; her companions were a fiercely loyal group, and Lacus knew that they would have no qualms about risking their lives to keep her safe.

_I understand the part I play here_, she thought, _I am the heart of this group's ideology. My beliefs and desire for peace and friendship between Coordinators and Naturals are what we fight for, and I act as the spokesperson for our faction in addition to being one of its financiers. I am the one that articulates our goals and philosophy while the others fight for them. I've accepted my role here, but still… it's times like this that I wish I actually could fight like Kira and the others. They risk their lives for our ideals on the battlefield, but the best I can do is ride along in our warships and act as an inspiration to the others. I wish I could do more…_

"Heero," she said, "What do you think of the girl they've chosen to play my part?"

Heero raised his eyebrow. "The imposter? It's hard to form an honest impression since I haven't met her myself. She's good at public speaking, but we can't say for sure if those are remarks she prepared herself or if others wrote them for her. Cosmetically, she's a near splitting image of you, but I doubt that was the case before she assumed this role."

Lacus nodded. "I see. Do you think there's any way that we can help her?"

"I'm not sure that I follow you there," Heero replied, "Durandal's using her to further his agenda, and this very act of deception potentially puts your life in danger since you could undo the whole act should you decide to intervene. She may not be hostile to us on a personal level, but in her current capacity I wouldn't exactly call her an ally either."

Lacus sighed. "Heero… do you remember my position in the last war? Before we defected and formed the Three Ships Alliance, I mean."

Heero nodded. "When you were still in the PLANTs, you were engaged to Athrun at the behest of your father and his. It wasn't a love match, but a public relations stunt; it was designed to facilitate the people's happiness at the expense of yours."

"Yes," said Lacus, "and in that respect, can you really look at my double and say she's all that different from me?"

Heero shook his head. "We don't know enough about her, Lacus. I agree that her current role is similar to your old one in that it's meant for public consumption, but that's where the similarities end. For all we know, she could've volunteered for this and is quite happy with the part she's playing."

"I'm aware of that possibility," said Lacus, "but whatever enthusiasm she may have had when she entered this role will be difficult for her to maintain."

Heero's eyes narrowed. "Why do you say that?"

"To be in the spotlight, to take the center of such a grand stage, may seem like every girl's dream," said Lacus somberly, "Even I couldn't entirely deny that allure in my days in the PLANTs. However, all too soon I realized that there's a real isolation when it comes to being the star of a performance. Thanks to my father and friends like Athrun I was able to avoid the worst of it, but for her… if she truly is just a tool for Durandal, then I imagine he will do all he can to keep her under his control. That will mean cutting off potential sources of outside influence. She'll have people around her, but they will only see her for the role that her master wants her to play. She won't have anyone that will help her remember her true self. She won't have _friends_, Heero; only people who will want to use her."

Heero nodded. "I hadn't considered that. In that light, I can definitely understand why you might relate to her. However, we have to be realistic, Lacus. Eric Bristow has built an extensive and invaluable intelligence network within L5, but even they were unaware of the imposter's existence until her public debut. That means that we have no one within her immediate circle of handlers who can reach out to her. We could always make an attempt to plant someone inside her retinue, but that would carry great risk for the informant assigned to that task. We need every possible intelligence source inside the PLANTs to monitor military and political developments, and while the imposter may have a real impact on the atmosphere within L5 it's still difficult to justify the risk to one of our assets in trying to get someone close to her. We lack the manpower of the Earth Alliance and ZAFT; we have to carefully prioritize the allocation of our available personnel."

Lacus sighed. "I understand that, Heero, but still… whoever she may be, I have no doubt that she's in over her head. She needs outside help, whether she realizes it or not. I can't write her off in good conscience just because she's working to advance Durandal's agenda. I want to _help her_, Heero."

"And what if it's a trap?" Heero replied pointedly, "What if Durandal revealed your doppelganger now because he's hoping you'll expose yourself? I can understand you sympathizing with her position, but that's not enough for you to put yourself or any of our personnel at risk."

"But removing her from Durandal's grasp could serve to undermine him," Lacus shot back, "We could help her and our larger goals at the same time!"

"Yes," said Heero, "but we still don't exactly know what kind of agenda we'd be acting to undermine. Besides, extracting her from the PLANTs while ZAFT's Home Fleet is on wartime alert is a tall order. More to the point, it's not a play that I have the authority to make. You'd have to take that up with Andrew and Eric, and I don't think they'd go for it at this stage of the campaign."

Lacus nodded reluctantly. "I understand. Still… if the chance presents itself, I believe we should make an effort to reach out to her."

"We'll see how things play out," Heero replied, "It's still early, Lacus. We've got a long way to go until this is all said and done."

"That's entirely too true, I fear," said Lacus grimly, "It's hard to say how this will all end. I only pray that we're able to pull humanity back from the brink again."

"I'm with you there," said Heero as he finished his tea, "Was there anything else that you wanted to talk about?"

Lacus shook her head and smiled. "Not at this time. Thank you, Heero. Even if we might disagree on some points, I always value your insights."

"Likewise," said Heero as he stood up, "You have a gentle heart, Lacus, and I'm not opposed on principle to helping your doppelganger if possible. I'm just trying to be realistic about where things stand."

"I know," said Lacus, "For now, we must focus on our efforts closer to home. Still, sometime in the future I would like the chance to meet the girl who is impersonating me. I imagine we would have much to talk about."

Heero nodded. "I'm sure you would. I'll see you around, Lacus."

Lacus smiled. "Try not to work too hard, Heero. You won't do yourself or Murrue any favors if you become exhausted."

Heero chuckled. "Yes, and she's said as much to me already. I'll try to pace myself appropriately."

He left the room as Lacus continued to drink her tea. Their conversation had given her a great deal to think about, not the least of which was the role she would play going forward in this conflict. She would have to discuss the matter of the imposter at L5 with some of the others, especially Terminal's senior leadership like Heero had suggested. There was a great deal of uncertainty in her mind, but one thing had already become crystal clear; the time was rapidly approaching where she would no longer be able to sit on the sidelines in this war. One way or another, she would soon be wading into the fray.

_The question_, she thought, _is how?_

….

Sitting down behind the desk in his private office, Unato sighed as he poured two glasses of whisky. "She's as obstinate and stubborn as her father."

On the other side of the desk, Yuna smiled. "Oh? I think we made real progress today with her, father."

Unato raised an eyebrow while sliding one glass over to his son. "Were you and I attending the same meetings? She's still refusing to put her weight behind a pact with the Atlantic Federation."

"Oh, I was indeed there with you, father," Yuna replied as he partook in the alcohol, "but I think I saw something you didn't."

"And what would that be?" asked Unato before taking a sip.

Yuna leaned forward, his smile morphing into a triumphant smirk. "She's broken, father. She refuses to come out in favor of a partnership with the Americans, but the fire behind her opposition has gone out. I saw it in her eyes today; she knows that her power is gone."

Unato shook his head. "Her government may be more or less under our control now, but she still has formal power. Therefore, she remains an obstacle, however much reduced in strength she might be."

"She'll cave," said Yuna confidently, "She cares too much for her people to allow them to suffer through another Earth Alliance invasion. It's only a matter of time now, father. In fact, I daresay we could start making arrangements for marriage between her and I tomorrow with the way things are going."

Unato chuckled. "Is that so? Well, I certainly wouldn't be opposed to putting that into motion. After all, binding the two of you by marriage will make it even easier to control her. Besides, the people do love a public spectacle, and the pageantry of a state wedding will certainly fit the bill."

Yuna grinned. "My thoughts exactly. It will be the perfect way to cement our hold over the country and will win us the hearts and minds of the people. They can't accuse us of seizing power if she agrees to marry me, and she'll still hold her official title of Chief Representative so the opposition will have little ground to make a stand on."

Unato's eyes narrowed. "The official opposition may be brought to heel, but the _unofficial _opposition will still need to be dealt with."

Yuna scoffed. "You mean those friends of Cagalli playing paramilitary? They're a bunch of brutes who know nothing of the intricate subtleties of politics. More to the point, they haven't interfered in the affairs of the Orb government at all, even though their staunchest ally has been all but overthrown. If they were going to move against us they should've done so a long time ago. Besides, if they act now we can simply paint them as armed thugs being utilized by Cagalli to maintain her grip on power through brutal force. The public would see it as a self-coup by Cagalli, and they would turn against her in a heartbeat."

"You take them too lightly," Unato replied, "They are a threat, my son. We must contend with them one way or another."

Yuna shrugged. "How are we supposed to do that when we don't know where their base of operations is? They pretty much dropped off the map after the war, and all our efforts to find them since then have come up empty. I say we wait until we officially join forces with the Earth Alliance. Once that's done we can simply invite the Americans in to comb the islands until they find Cagalli's thugs and crush them. It would save us a lot of trouble."

Unato sighed. "It's not that simple. Our partners in the Atlantic Federation have been rather insistent with me that we step up our efforts to locate the members of the Three Ships Alliance that reside in Orb. They won't take too kindly to us sitting idly and waiting for them to do the work for us."

Yuna smirked. "What are they going to do? Withdraw support? They can't afford to do that now; they need us as much as we need them if the Orb Union is to move into their camp. Let Djibril posture and make his threats; I think we can endure some scolding while we make the final arrangements to secure our grip on power."

Unato shook his head. "You may be cavalier on this matter, but _I _will step up our efforts to root out the Three Ships Alliance just the same. If we don't at least put in a good faith effort to find them it won't go over well with LOGOS."

"You're the head of the family," said Yuna nonchalantly, "Do as you see fit, father."

_Indeed, I shall_, thought Unato as he took a sip of his whisky, _Someone has to treat this matter with the gravity that it deserves…_

"By the way," said Yuna, "I took another look at the plans for the _Takemikazuchi_. I must say that I'm looking forward to bringing her onto the battlefield. It will be fun to see the looks on the Coordinators' faces when Orb's mightiest carrier deploys against them."

Unato groaned. "You're still planning on heading out with the fleet when we declare war on ZAFT?"

Yuna grinned. "Of course, father. You know how gifted I am with strategy, after all. It's only natural that I should take command when we launch our campaign."

"You play strategy _games_," said Unato pointedly, "Actual war is best left to the professionals, my son. It's what the taxpayers fund them for, after all."

Yuna shook his head. "They're not just _games_, father. I'll have you know that they're simulations with an impeccable attention to detail. They're quite realistic, and involve units that are employed in armies across the Earth Sphere, including the Orb Union."

"I don't care how detailed they might be," Unato shot back, "I'm no soldier, but I'm old enough to have witnessed my share of wars. Computer models will only take you so far, Yuna."

"Which is why I intend to surround myself with the best officers in Orb's military," Yuna replied, "After all, I want nothing less than the most qualified people giving me input before I give my orders."

Unato's eyes narrowed. "And how can you be sure that those officers will be loyal to _you_? Cagalli was a fool in the last war for being willing to risk her life on the front lines, but it did serve to inspire our nation's soldiers. Their level of respect for her is quite high; it's why we've had so much trouble extending our influence over the military when compared to the other institutions in our government."

"I think you're overestimating Cagalli's impact on them," said Yuna, "Our soldiers took oaths of loyalty to their country, not to her. If they resist us because of some misguided affection for Cagalli, then they'll be committing treason. They won't risk the firing the squad for her sake; they'll follow whatever commands we give them."

Unato sighed. "I hope you're right. I won't stop you if you still desire this path, even if I still believe it to be a needless risk. You may not be a mobile suit pilot, but having you on the bridge of our flagship when it sails forth to commence its campaign may serve as a useful symbol for the military. It may well convince them that we're willing to share their risks, and it could serve to bind them to us rather than Cagalli."

Yuna smiled as he raised his glass. "I shall be more than a symbol, father. Under my orders, our military will do its part to drive the Coordinators from the surface of our world. Through our alliance with the Atlantic Federation, we can complete what was started at Junius Seven and Elysium."

"Mind yourself," Unato cautioned, "I've gone to great lengths to keep our involvement in what happened at Elysium a secret. If that comes out, then we are finished."

"My lips are sealed, father," Yuna replied.

Unato nodded. "Good. We've come too far to turn back now, or to be undone by our past deeds. Soon the Orb Union will be ours in both fact and name. We shall join with the Earth Alliance, mobilize our forces, and declare war on ZAFT."

"Speaking of ZAFT," said Yuna, "There is the small matter of that battleship of theirs that is still resting at our dock. It's a mighty fine piece of military hardware; it'd be a shame to just let the Coordinators keep it."

"Agreed," said Unato, "but it is not ours for the taking. I've already decided that we'll be presenting it to the Earth Alliance as a good faith gesture of Orb's commitment to our new pact with them."

Yuna nodded. "Sounds reasonable enough. What about the crew, though? Cagalli seems to hold them in high regard, mistaken though she may be."

"We'll take them into custody as prisoners of war," said Unato, "and arrange to have them sent to the Americans for interrogation."

Yuna smirked. "Interrogation or execution?"

"Both, knowing the Atlantic Federation's past conduct with Coordinator prisoners," Unato replied, "Regardless, it'll be another token of good will that should help us secure our standing with the Earth Alliance. We'll make the necessary moves tomorrow."

"I'm looking forward to it," said Yuna.

….

"You wanted to see us?" asked Heero as he and Murrue entered the data analysis room.

Over at one of the consoles, Eric Bristow looked over his should and nodded. "I really only needed you, Heero, but I figured you'd tell Murrue about this right after we we're done, so I figured we'd save her the delay."

Next to him, Shemei smiled. "She has just as much a right to know about this as you, Heero. After all, she's got a stake in this, too."

"What's going on?" asked Murrue nervously.

Heero's eyes narrowed as they joined Eric and Shemei by the console. "I don't like where this is going."

"Nor should you," said Eric as he turned back to the monitor, "Shemei and I were looking over some flight data sent over from one of my contacts within ZAFT's Home Fleet. It's from yesterday's battle."

Murrue sighed. "Because we haven't seen enough footage of that fight for one day?"

Shemei nodded. "I'm with you there; I thought we'd seen all we really needed to as far as that battle's concerned. That was before _this _was sent over, however."

Heero and Murrue leaned forward as the combat footage began to play. Based on the data stamp in the bottom right corner, it had been taken directly from a ZAFT mobile suit flight recorder. The unit was right in the thick of the action, and based on the accuracy of its beam rifle shots the pilot seemed to have a decent level of skill.

"What are we looking for here?" asked Heero.

"Give it a minute," Eric replied, "Trust me, it's coming."

Continuing to observe the fight from the ZAFT pilot's perspective, Heero saw an Earth Alliance Juggernaut assault mobile armor moving up the field. Two ZAFT machines rushed towards it, and while Heero recognized one of them as a Gunner ZAKU, the other appeared to be a new model.

That was where Eric decided to freeze the footage. "There we are. Check this out."

He zoomed in on the two machines, and Heero's eyes widened as he saw their color schemes.

_It can't be…_

_ I killed them…_

_ …didn't I?_

His mind flashed back to the final battle of the previous war, and the fierce two-on-one match he had waged with a pair of mercenary hellhounds in the shadow of GENESIS. All too soon, the footage had zeroed in on an emblem painted on the lead machine, and Heero recognized it instantly.

The crimson hound biting its chain.

"Oh, my god…" said Murrue softly.

"So," said Heero grimly, "Galm Team lives."

"Yes," said Eric, "I was really hoping that wasn't the case, but that emblem combined with the skill they show in the rest of the video… it's them, Heero."

Shemei sighed. "I know we'd never confirmed that they were dead, but after that fight at Jachin Due I was really hoping that they'd bitten the dust."

Murrue nodded. "I know what you mean. To have them on the field again… this isn't good."

"I recognize one of the units they're flying," said Heero, "but the lead machine looks like a new model. It appears geared for close combat, so I'm betting Cipher's flying that one. Eric, do we have any information on it?"

Eric nodded. "According to my sources, it's the ZGMF-X2000 GOUF Ignited. It's a prototype commander unit that's slated to enter limited production soon. No Phase Shift Armor, but it's still a pretty high performance mobile suit. If it does well, I imagine they'll move it to full mass production status and use it to phase out the Slash Wizard Pack for the ZAKU Warrior and Phantom."

Shemei's eyes narrowed. "It's impressive for a non-nuclear machine, but it's also a considerable downgrade from what Cipher was flying at Jachin Due. Pixy's is even worse; his is a regular Gunner ZAKU Warrior. Giving them machines like that is a serious waste of their combat abilities. It's almost an insult, really."

Eric shrugged. "Insult or not, they still handled themselves well. I've got confirmation that both of them survived the fight, and they racked up considerable kill counts in the engagement."

"Do we know what ship they were based out of?" asked Murrue.

"The flagship _Gondwana_," Eric replied, "That's prime real estate for ZAFT pilots these days; whoever brought them back at least appreciates their abilities enough to give them one hell of a launching platform."

"If they're flying for ZAFT," said Heero, "then we shouldn't have to engage them right away. However, we need to be prepared for a confrontation with them. If this war plays out at all like the last one, we'll likely be going up against ZAFT sooner or later."

"And there's no guarantee that they'll be flying those machines forever," said Murrue grimly, "Who knows what ZAFT might be working on behind the scenes?"

"No kidding," said Shemei, "We need to find a way to keep an eye on these guys."

"Easier said than done," said Eric with a sigh, "My sources in the fleet didn't pick up on these guys being in the fray until after the battle was over. I'd bet anything that Durandal was keeping the Galm Team in the shadows until hostilities commenced. They're one hell of an ace in the hole, even with less powerful machines than what they had last time around."

"Are there any other nasty surprises that you were able to find with this latest intel?" asked Heero.

"Not really a surprise," said Eric, "and it's not directly related to the battle, but I did get a separate update regarding ZAFT fleet movements. They've moved a bunch of warships into orbit over Gibraltar and Carpentaria in preparation for dropping reinforcements down to the surface."

"It's not a moment too soon," said Shemei, "The Earth Alliance is already positioning their forces for sieges of those bases. This move should help ZAFT keep their footholds on the surface, at least for a little while."

Heero's eyes narrowed. "Their ground forces took heavy losses in the last war. They can't have many veteran troops among the reinforcements."

"Not to mention they lack the main advantage they had in the last war," said Murrue grimly, "Both sides have mass production mobile suits now. This is going to get bloody."

"No argument there," said Eric, "but it does give us an opportunity to score an early victory against the Earth Alliance once they move on Carpentaria. Hitting them from behind while they're focused on the assault will devastate their forces, and they'll be in very poor position to counterattack."

"True," said Shemei, "but we have no guarantee that ZAFT won't turn their guns on us during the fighting. We could just as easily trigger a three-way brawl."

Murrue nodded. "We might be doing ZAFT a favor by hitting the Earth Alliance from the rear, but it'd be foolish to assume Carpentaria's commander will see things from the same perspective. For all we know they could just assume that we're against the Alliance and ZAFT right from the get-go; we did take on both sides in the final campaigns of the last war, after all."

"We'll need to tread carefully," said Heero, "Still, if the opportunity presents itself, we should take the chance. It could be the opening we need to cripple the Atlantic Federation's naval power in the Pacific."

Eric nodded. "That's true. We'll keep our ears to the wind and see how things develop from here."

"Was there anything else that you wanted to show us?" asked Murrue.

Eric shook his head. "Not at this time."

"You two should take it easy for a little bit," said Shemei with a smile, "Hard to say what the next batch of intel will bring when it comes in, so grab a break while you can."

"Make sure that you two do the same," Murrue replied, "You won't be doing us any good if you work yourselves to exhaustion."

"No argument there," said Eric.

With that, Heero and Murrue left the room. They quickly made their way back to the aboveground portion of Terminal's estate and went up to their room.

"Well," said Murrue, "That definitely wasn't good news."

Heero nodded. "At least we're aware of them now. We'll be able to prepare accordingly."

Murrue sighed. "I know, but still… I don't like this, Heero. Apart from Shemei, they were the only pilots able to fight you on relatively even ground during the last war. I don't care that we're not fighting ZAFT right now; those are still the last two pilots that I want on the field in this war."

Heero reached over and took her hand. "Believe me, Murrue, I feel the same way. Still, we have to accept the fact that they're back. We don't get to pick what aces our enemies send against us. All we can do is be ready to face them when the time comes. Don't worry; if we encounter them on the battlefield, I'll keep them away from the _Archangel_."

Murrue shook her head. "It's not the _Archangel _that I'm worried about, Heero; it's you. I know that you're as strong as ever, and Wing Zero's more powerful now, but the Galm Team knows how to fight you. They've had two years to retrain and refine their abilities, Heero, and they'll put their knowledge to good use when they face you again."

"I'm well aware of that," said Heero, "I know that they'll leverage their experience when we meet again, and I'll be doing the same. They're not the only ones that can learn new tricks, Murrue."

Murrue smiled. "I know. Still… you can't blame me for worrying."

"And I don't," said Heero, "I'm actually grateful for it; it means you care."

She squeezed his hand. "Of course I do, Heero. I always will."

"So will I," he replied, "and that's all the more incentive for me to beat the Galm Team again… and put them down for good this time. Recurring clashes aren't healthy for mobile suit pilots, and I intend to make sure that the Galm Team meets their end in this war should we cross paths with them."

"Just don't go too far," Murrue cautioned him, "I agree that they need to be taken down, but we have to do it right. We can't just finish them off if they surrender or their suits are disabled."

Heero nodded. "I know. Still, one way or another, this little rivalry of ours has to end. I know they'll come gunning for me sooner or later. They might get their kicks from fighting me, but the feeling's not mutual. I'm fighting to defend you and the rest of this world. If they pose a threat to that, I'll act accordingly."

_They won't pull their punches when we meet on the field_, he thought grimly, _and I can't afford to do the same. We all walked away from our last fight, so this time…_

_ …we'll be playing for keeps._

….

**October 23****rd****, C.E. 73**

The sun hadn't even risen yet, but the Desert Tiger had already finished showering and cleaning up. He had forced himself to become a habitual early riser over the course of his military career, and that hadn't changed since his move from ZAFT to Terminal. There always seemed to be so much to do in his role as one of the group's senior leaders and not enough time to do it; with the world at war again, he was sure that today would be no exception.

The bedroom door opened, and he smiled as Aisha walked in with two steaming coffee mugs. "Today's special, coming right up!"

"Thanks," he said as he accept a cup and took a sip, "Mmmm… this is one of my blends, isn't it?"

Aisha winked. "I may have liberated it from your stash while you were still snoozing. I figured you'd want an extra boost; we've got a lot on our plates today."

Andrew chuckled. "Well, you won't hear me complaining. This is just what the doctor ordered."

Aisha leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. "There's still some in the pot downstairs if you want seconds."

"I'll probably take you up on that," said Andrew before he got distracted by his phone ringing, "Just a second."

Checking the caller identification, he saw that it was Kisaka's secure line. His good eye immediately narrowed; based on the last update he'd gotten from the Orb Colonel he doubted the man was calling in with good news.

"Morning, Kisaka," he said, "Hitting me right out of the gate, aren't you?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Kisaka replied, "and it's worse than you may suspect."

Andrew sighed. "Well, don't pull your punches. What are we dealing with now?"

"Cagalli no longer holds power," said Kisaka.

Andrew's face paled. "What? Kisaka, what happened? Is she okay?"

"For the moment," said Kisaka, "It wasn't an actual coup; there was no violence, and I don't think her opponents have any interest in physically harming her. However, the Seirans have made their move; all government agencies are answering to them now, and their control extends to the military. Cagalli's government has fallen, Andrew."

"Damn it," hissed Andrew, "This couldn't have come at a worse time!"

"I know," said Kisaka grimly, "and the bad news doesn't end there."

"Of course it doesn't," said Andrew wearily, "What else are we dealing with?"

"There's been a string of rapid-fire communiqués between representatives of the Orb Union and the Atlantic Federation," said Kisaka, "The Seirans have begun positioning the country as an ally of the Americans, and there's nothing Cagalli can do to stop them. Soon the Orb Union will officially enter the war on the side of the Earth Alliance."

Andrew's good eye widened as he realized something. "If that's the case… what about the _Minerva_?"

"That's another thing I wanted to give you a heads up on," said Kisaka, "The Seirans are mobilizing forces to seize the ship. They plan on handing over both the vessel and its crew to the Atlantic Federation. I think we both know what that really means."

_Oh, yeah_, thought Andrew grimly, _Standard American operating procedure for captured ZAFT soldiers in the last war was torture and murder. Based on the way they opened up this new war, I doubt that's changed._

"There's still time for the _Minerva _to make its escape," Kisaka continued, "but not much. The Orb Union Navy is mobilizing, and the Atlantic Federation's Pacific Fleet is conducting maneuvers offshore. It'll be tight, but the _Minerva _should be able to slip the noose and head to Carpentaria if they leave now."

Andrew nodded, his mind rapidly formulating a plan to get the ship out of the country. "I've got someone here that can contact them; the ship's Captain should listen to him considering that he and his buddies saved their hides at Armory One."

"Move quickly, Waltfeld," said Kisaka, "Time is not on our side."

"I hear you there," Andrew replied, "Watch your back, all right?"

Kisaka chuckled. "Same goes for you. I don't think the Seirans and their allies know where Terminal's basing out of in the Orb Union, but a few extra precautions couldn't hurt."

"We're already taking them," said Andrew, "Home One, out."

"Well," said Aisha as he put his phone away, "That didn't sound good."

Andrew took a sip of his coffee. "You got that right. I'd better go track down Heero. I need him to pass on a message to the _Minerva_."

_Hopefully they'll get it before Orb hands them over to the Americans…_

….

The bridge had been relatively quiet so far this morning, which made it rather jarring when Talia heard Meyrin's cry shatter the peace. "Captain, incoming transmission! It's Heero Yuy!"

Talia's eyes widened. "What? Put him on at once!"

_He dropped off the grid after Operation Redemption_, she thought, _I don't know why he's reaching out to us now out of the blue like this, but I doubt this is a social call._

The young man appeared on the main bridge monitor a few seconds later, and he didn't waste any time in getting down to business. "Captain Gladys, you need to get your ship out of Orb immediately."

"What are you talking about?" asked Talia.

"Since when do we take orders from you?" said Arthur pointedly.

"You'll take this one if you want to live," said Heero firmly, "The Orb Union is about to enter a strategic pact with the Earth Alliance. This isn't the will of Cagalli, but unfortunately she's no longer calling the shots in Orb. Security teams are mobilizing; they'll be at the docks to seize your ship and hand it and you over to the Atlantic Federation within the hour. You have to leave _now_."

Talia was flabbergasted. "I… I don't believe this! We haven't received any updates from the Defense Council regarding Orb siding with the Alliance!"

"ZAFT doesn't have the same intelligence sources within the Orb government that I do," Heero replied, "By the time they learn what's happened, it will be too late. Your ship will be in enemy hands, and you and your crew will likely be carted off to Guantanamo Bay for torture and execution. You have no time to wait for orders from the Defense Council, Captain; you have to flee right away."

Talia was torn. On the one hand, she would be leaving the Orb Union without orders from the Defense Council. If Heero was wrong about Orb allying itself with the Atlantic Federation and the imminent threat that posed to her ship and her crew, then she would be facing serious charges for insubordination. However, the young man had already helped her and her crew several times since their encounter at Armory One. Talia could not think of any reason why he might lie to her now given his past behavior.

_My crew's safety comes first_, she thought, _and if he's wrong about this, then I will take the blame; either way, my crew will remain unharmed. When viewed in that light, I suppose the choice is an easy one._

Talia nodded. "Very well. Thank you for the warning, Heero."

"You're welcome," he replied, "Be on your guard; you won't be safe just because you've left the docks. The Pacific Fleet has split into multiple battle groups, and there's no guarantee that you won't come across one of them in your flight to Carpentaria. Also, the Orb Union Navy is mobilizing as well; there's a good chance that they'll attack you if you try to turn back. Get to Carpentaria as fast as you can. You should be relatively safe once you're within the defensive umbrella ZAFT has established in that area. Good luck."

He disappeared from the screen, and Talia wasted no time in barking out orders. "Helm, fire up the engines and get us out of here! All hands will go to standby alert until the _Minerva _is clear of the Orb Union's territorial waters. Have the hangar crews double check the mobile suits; I want them ready to sortie at a moment's notice!"

"Captain," said Arthur, "We're really taking Heero Yuy's word on this?"

"We have nothing to lose at this point, Arthur," Talia replied with a smile, "Don't worry; I'll shoulder the blame if the Defense Council finds us in the wrong here."

"Captain…" said Arthur, looking conflicted about the matter.

"We have no time for doubts now, Arthur," said Talia, "You and I have a responsibility to make sure that this ship does not fall into enemy hands. Can I count on you to help me keep her safe?"

Arthur nodded and smiled. "Yes, Captain!"

_All right_, she thought as she felt the rumble of the ship's engines coming online, _I guess it's time to run the gauntlet. I hope we make it through._

….

Down in the communications section of the Terminal's underground complex, Heero leaned back in his chair and turned to the others. "Well, they have their warning. The rest is up to them."

Murrue smiled. "They'll make it. They might still be new to all of this, but I could tell during the orbital battle that they have potential."

Eric nodded. "The _Minerva_'s the most advanced ship in ZAFT's fleet, and they didn't skimp when it comes to her mobile suits either. If any vessel can make the dash to Carpentaria, my money's on that one."

Shemei smirked. "Plus they've got Wufei with them. I mean, they'd be better off if they had all five of you, but one Gundam pilot's better than nothing, right?"

Andrew chuckled. "We certainly made it work for us in the last war."

Aisha winked at Heero. "You know, I've always thought of you as our good luck charm, Heero. Hopefully Wufei has that same effect on the _Minerva_."

Heero couldn't help but smirk at the thought. "I'm not sure that Wufei would like being described as a good luck charm, but as long as he's with the _Minerva _I think that ship's odds of survival are pretty good."

"You know," said Duo, "we could always chase after them. We don't have to go with them all the way to Carpentaria, but we could at least help them make the first leg of the trip and then fly back here."

"I don't know," said Quatre, "Can Terminal really afford to divide its forces right now? Even if it'd just be temporary, with the way things are going it might be better for us to stick around here for now."

Trowa nodded. "I agree. We've seen no indication that the Seirans have learned of our location and have betrayed it to the Atlantic Federation, but I still favor caution. With the rest of us here, we can help defend the compound and cover an evacuation if it comes down to that."

"That was my line of thinking, too," said Heero, meeting Murrue's gaze, "For the time being, I'd rather us stay together."

Murrue nodded. "I'm with you there."

Heero looked at his fellow Gundam pilots. "If any of you want to help the _Minerva _make its escape, I won't stop you."

Duo shrugged. "It was just a thought. I'm cool sticking around here, too. Either way's fine by me."

Quatre sighed. "We'll likely see our share of fighting soon enough. There's no reason to rush into it."

"What do we do about the Orb Union?" asked Trowa, "Will we have to engage their forces in combat?"

"I hope it doesn't come to that," said Eric, "but we have to be ready for anything."

"If they're going all in with the Earth Alliance, then they'll get thrown right into the meat grinder," said Shemei grimly, "The Atlantic Federation won't settle for using Orb's military as an auxiliary; they'll put them right on the front lines so they can take the hits while the Americans get to save their forces for another fight."

"If it does go that way, then their pact with the Earth Alliance may prove to be short lived," said Andrew, "Soldiers tend to take poorly to being used as another nation's cannon fodder."

Aisha's brow furrowed. "Do you think the Orb Union's military would stage a coup if things got severe enough?"

Heero nodded. "Down the line, it's a distinct possibility. We should definitely maintain contact with our sources in their ranks. If we can sow the seeds of doubt amongst the regarding the Seirans it'll go a long way towards helping our cause. However, in the short term our primary concern should be Cagalli."

Duo shook his head. "Man, it _sucks _to be her right now."

"I'm sure she would agree with that sentiment," said Quatre, "The question is how do we help her?"

"I believe Heero's already proposed our course of action on that front," said Trowa.

Heero nodded before turning to Eric. "How soon do you think we can put that plan into action?"

Eric's eyes narrowed. "It'll be tricky. We've got sources inside her security detail, so they won't pose a problem. However, the Seirans will want to keep her in line as their puppet, so it's possible that they've got their own forces watching over her now."

"We can handle any security precautions the Seirans have taken," said Murrue, "The real problem is Cagalli herself. Her situation is dire, but she won't abandon her countrymen without a fight."

"I'll deal with her on that front," said Heero, "We just need to set a time and place for the op to go down."

"We'll keep our eyes and ears open and plan accordingly," said Andrew with a smirk, "You really think you can sweet talk her, Heero?"

"Yes," he replied.

Aisha smiled. "You never seem to lack for confidence, do you? I hope you can back it up, otherwise Cagalli will be pissed if you knock her unconscious and haul her out like a sack of potatoes."

Shemei chuckled. "Well, like they always say, easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission."

"Hopefully it won't come to that," said Murrue with a smile.

Heero nodded. "Agreed."

….

Yuna smiled as he walked into the central war-room of the Orb Union's primary military headquarters. It was alive with activity as officers rushed to and from, relaying orders and coordinating forces. The mobilization of the nation's military was well underway, and Yuna couldn't wait for the next step.

"Lord Seiran!" called one of the officers, "Urgent news from the security teams assigned to the docks!"

"Ah, excellent," said Yuna, "I take it the _Minerva _has been captured, then?"

"No," the young man replied, "She put to sea before the teams were able to board her!"

Yuna sighed. "So they were tipped off, then. No matter. They're only delaying the inevitable. Have our coastal forces been tracking her?"

The officer nodded. "Aerial reconnaissance has picked up the ship. Her current vector will take her straight to Carpentaria. For the moment, though, she's still within our territorial waters."

Yuna smirked. "Perfect. Inform our Alliance liaison officer of this development, and dispatch a battle group to pursue her. We'll drive the _Minerva_ right into the hands of the Americans."

"What about Chief Representative Cagalli?" asked the officer, "Shouldn't she be informed of this matter?"

Yuna shook his head. "She's preoccupied with other affairs of state. This is a small matter that does not require her attention. We can handle the details on our end here."

The officer nodded, although he did seem a little uneasy. "Very well, Lord Seiran."

_So they're still having some doubts about our leadership_, he mused, _No matter. We'll bring the officer corps into line soon enough._

He looked up at one of the monitors on the far wall, smiling as he zeroed in on one display in particular. It was a map of the Orb Union's southeastern territorial waters where the _Minerva _was currently located. He could already picture the ZAFT ship getting caught in the vice-grip of the Alliance and Orb Union forces. Soon enough, his mental image would become reality.

Intelligence had reported that one of the five new mobile suits that had made their debut at Armory One, a so-called 'Gundam', had remained with the _Minerva _after the battleship had descended to Earth. However, the other four machines had apparently parted ways with the vessel and had not been sighted by the dock crews since. There would be no Heero Yuy for the Alliance and Orb Union forces to worry about in the coming battle. The _Minerva _was already dead in the water; the Coordinators just didn't know it yet.

"This should be interesting," he murmured, "I can't wait to get started!"

….

Shinn slammed his hand against the nearby bulkhead. "They sided with the Earth forces? Those bastards! Just how corrupt can Orb possibly get?"

Rey put a hand on his shoulder. "Calm down, Shinn. What's done is done. There's no sense in letting anger at the Orb Union distract us from our current situation, regardless of how well-deserved that anger may be."

Lunamaria sighed. "I get where you're coming from, Shinn. It's too bad, really. I liked Orb, and I thought Cagalli was on our side. I guess I was wrong there."

"Not quite," said a familiar male voice.

The three pilots turned to see Wufei leaning against the doorframe of the entrance to the pilots' ready room. He looked more or less unfazed by the current situation, which just frustrated Shinn even more. How could the Gundam pilot remain so at-ease when they'd just been betrayed by the country whose leader they had saved just a few weeks ago?

Lunamaria folded her arms. "What makes you say that?"

Wufei shrugged. "I don't know Cagalli as well as Heero does, but based on the impression I got from her while she was on this ship I doubt she wanted to sell you guys out to the Earth Alliance. Someone else in the Orb Union government's probably responsible for this."

Rey's eyes narrowed. "And who would that be?"

Wufei shook his head. "Don't know. Frankly, I don't care. It really doesn't matter at this point, though. The Orb Union has turned against ZAFT now, which means the only course of action available now for this ship is to get to Carpentaria… something that should've been done quite some time ago."

Shinn didn't often find himself in agreement with Wufei, but this occasion certainly qualified as one such instance. If the Captain had departed the Orb Union before the Alliance's attack on L5 they would already be well clear of any potential threats. Now they were making a mad dash for the base, and they were still well within range of attack from the forces of both the Earth Alliance and the Orb Union.

"So," said Lunamaria, eyeing Wufei, "what are you going to do?"

"Fight," Wufei replied casually, "It's why I'm here, after all."

Shinn nodded. "That's why we're all here now. Earth Alliance, Orb Union… it doesn't matter. We'll take down anyone that threatens this ship."

"Well spoken," said Rey, "Lunamaria and I don't have full-flight capable machines, so if we are attacked at sea the two of us will focus on defending the _Minerva_. The two of you will have to serve as our offensive force."

Wufei smirked. "I was going to take that role regardless of your input."

Lunamaria glared at him. "Just don't blame us if your cockiness gets you shot down, you got that?"

"I doubt the Alliance has anyone on the field capable of taking me down," Wufei replied, "The only one that comes close is that mercenary. If he's on the field today, then things should be quite interesting…"

Shinn scowled. "You don't even care about the _Minerva_, do you? You're just out here so you can have a good fight."

Wufei rolled his eyes. "Think whatever you want. I don't have to justify myself to you. It's not worth my time to do so."

"Why, you…" Shinn growled.

Rey held out his arm between the two of them. "That's enough. If we're going to make it to Carpentaria, we have to work together. We can't afford to have you two at each other's throats before the fighting even starts."

"Rey's right," said Lunamaria, "Save it for the enemy."

"I'm not the one with the problem," said Wufei, nodding at Shinn, "He's the one who needs to get a grip."

"At least I'm out here fighting for a cause," Shinn shot back, "You're just out for yourself."

"I have my own reasons for fighting," said Wufei, "and I don't have to explain them to you. I doubt you'd understand them, anyway."

Shinn folded his arms and shook his head. "You know what? Forget about it. As long as you fight and don't run off on us, that's all that matters."

Lunamaria sighed with relief. "Well… I guess that's progress."

Rey shrugged. "We'll have to take what we can get."

_Yeah_, thought Shinn as he glared at Wufei one more time, _although why we got stuck with this guy I really don't understand. Couldn't one of the other Gundam pilots have stuck around instead? I mean, maybe not Heero, but the other three seemed okay…_

It didn't matter. They were here, now, and in all likelihood about to go into battle against the Earth Alliance and possibly the Orb Union. He could wish all he wanted to that they had a different Gundam pilot backing them up, but the fact remained that Wufei was the one that had decided to stick around after the orbital battle. They were stuck with him, and Shinn would just have to make the most of it.

….

"Contacts!" cried the _Minerva_'s sensor officer, "Multiple warships approaching! Captain, they're at our twelve and six o'clock!"

"On screen, now!" Talia ordered.

A tactical display appeared on the main monitor. Talia knew that the blue dot in the middle was the _Minerva_, and she saw that it was bracketed from the front and back by two more rows of dots. The row up front was red; ZAFT's color of choice for the Earth Alliance forces. The row behind the ship was yellow, which meant that the ships trailing them belonged to the Orb Union Navy.

_Our back's to the wall_, she thought as she studied the display, _and that wall just so happens to be armed._ _This could get ugly…_

"Give me the numbers," she said, "What are we looking at?"

"The Atlantic Federation force is composed of three carriers and eight destroyers," the sensor officer replied, "The Orb Union group has one carrier, two cruisers, and five destroyers."

Talia sighed. "So they're not just going to let us waltz right out of their territory. We're Orb's gift to the Earth Alliance. I wish it hadn't come to this."

"What should we do, Captain?" asked Arthur.

"The only thing we can do," Talia replied grimly before issuing new orders, "All hands to battle stations! Get the Impulse in the air with a Force Silhouette and have him and Wufei take the fight to the enemy. Lunamaria and Rey will stay with the _Minerva_. We'll move forward and punch through the Earth Alliance force!"

"What about the Orb Union battle group?" asked Arthur.

Talia shook her head. "We can't afford to fight on two fronts right now. We'll concentrate on the Americans and only engage Orb's forces if they move to attack us!"

_Hopefully the Orb forces will hang back and only engage us if we move back towards them_, she thought as she checked the display again, _We're right on the border of their territory, so it all depends on how aggressive their commander's feeling. No matter what happens, we can't afford to get pushed back. We have to keep moving forward!_

….

Rotund and grey haired, Rear Admiral Sean Bannon studied the tactical display on the bridge of the Atlantic Federation _Spengler_-class carrier _Sessions_. With the ZAFT battleship caught between the forces of the Earth Alliance and the Orb Union, he was expecting an easy victory. The mobile suits of a single carrier would outnumber what the ZAFT vessel could put into the air, and even if much of the hangar space onboard the _Sessions _was taken up by the new weapon that still left two full carriers with more conventional machines, not to mention the supporting destroyers.

"Rear Admiral!" called the carrier's flight coordinator, "The Zamza-Zah is ready to move to the flight deck!"

Bannon shook his head. "Launch our mobile suits, but hold that thing back for now. It's our ace in the hole for this fight."

The flight coordinator nodded. "Understood."

"Comms," he said, "Get me a line with the battle group."

The communications officer nodded. "Got it. You're live, sir!"

Bannon cleared his throat. "Attention all hands! Launch all mobile suits and engage the ZAFT battleship. Destroyers will target the warship directly while our mobile suits will eliminate enemy air support before commencing attack runs on the vessel. Do not let up the attack until that ship is destroyed!"

There was no mention of the possibility of surrender, and that was quite intentional. Orders had already been passed down from the Atlantic Federation High Command; the same policy that had gone into effect in the last war applied here as well.

_That ship and its crew die here_, thought Bannon, _for the preservation of our blue and pure world!_

….

**Start "Annex"**

As the Core Splendor was moved to the catapult Shinn say Meyrin appear on his monitor. "Shinn, are you all set?"

Shinn nodded. "Ready when you are."

"Good," she replied, "We'll launch a Force Silhouette as soon as you're clear. Wufei's already airborne, so he'll cover you while you link up with it. Once that's done, help him clear out the enemy air units. Rey and Luna will try to pick off the ones that come at the ship, but they won't be able to move out from the _Minerva_, so they'll be counting on you."

"What about the warships?" asked Shinn.

"The Captain wants the _Minerva _to engage them directly," said Meyrin, "We might be outnumbered, but this ship's much tougher than anything they have on the field. I just hope it's tough enough to get us through this."

Shinn smiled. "Don't worry. I won't let them take down the _Minerva_!"

"Be careful out there," said Meyrin, smiling as well, "Core Splendor, you are clear for launch!"

Shinn nodded. "Shinn Asuka, launching!"

He was thrown back in his chair as the fighter shot out of the hangar like a cannonball. Quickly reorienting his craft, he saw the remaining components of the Impulse flying out of the ship as well, and he immediately moved to link up with them.

_I can't believe I'm counting on Wufei to keep me safe while I do this_, he thought as he searched the sky for the Altron Gundam, _He'd better not let me get shot down…_

It wasn't hard to find Wufei's machine; it was rushing right for the approaching Alliance mobile suits. Glancing at his sensors, Shinn saw that the enemy force was a mix of Dagger-Ls and the newer Windam model units. Both types were outfitted with Jet Striker Packs, an augmentation set that was optimized for airborne atmospheric combat. It gave the mobile suits advanced jet engines to allow for fully independent flight, while hard-points mounted on the wings could be fixed with guided and unguided munitions including air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles and unguided rocket pods.

The lead units were already opening up on Wufei with their air-to-air ordinance along with their beam rifles. Nothing so much as touched the Altron; it was too fast, and Wufei was already closing the distance. The Gundam's Dragon Fangs shot forward, crushing two Dagger-Ls and sending their mangled frames falling to the sea.

_At least he's got me covered_, thought Shinn as the Impulse's remaining components approached the Core Splendor, _I'd better focus on the linkup here._

He made a few adjustments to line up his craft before triggering the merging sequence. Right on cue the Core Splendor shifted as the fighter jet became the mobile suit's chest and cockpit module. The rest of the components linked up on cue, and as Shinn powered up the Impulse's Variable Phase Shift Armor the Force Silhouette attached itself to the unit's back.

"All right," he said as he drew his beam rifle and saber, "Let's do this!"

The Impulse shot forward as he gunned the engines. Up ahead he could see the Altron's double-ended beam trident whirling a cyclone of emerald energy around the Gundam. A Windam tried to engage with its violet beam saber, only to be shredded by Wufei's blades. Other Alliance units opened fire with their rifles and wing-mounted ordinance, but Wufei simply accelerated and dived towards the sea before shooting right back up like a rocket. Before the enemy could react he was among them and cutting through them like a buzz-saw.

"Don't forget me!" shouted Shinn as he opened fire, blasting a Dagger-L through the cockpit.

"Took you long enough," said Wufei as he struck down a Windam with his left Dragon Fang.

"Hey!" Shinn snapped while picking off another Dagger-L with his rifle, "The Impulse isn't like your Gundam, you know?"

"I'm well aware of that," Wufei deadpanned before spearing a Windam with his beam trident, "That's not important now. Let's split up. Can you handle the units coming in on the right flank?"

Shinn nodded. "Sure. You got the left?"

"Naturally," Wufei replied as he crushed a Dagger-L with his Dragon Fang, "We won't be able to stop them all, but we should be able to thin them out enough for Lunamaria and Rey to pick off the survivors."

"I hope you're right," said Shinn while blocking incoming beam rifle fire on his shield.

"Let's get to work," said Wufei as he charged head-on into the enemy ranks.

Shinn did the same, hitting his thrusters and pushing forward, firing as he went. His assault caused the Alliance suits to scatter, and he was able to pick off a Windam with particle beam fire before he got into saber range. A stream of bullets flew forth from his CIWS as he shot down a handful of missiles that were heading his way before he deflected a beam saber strike and counterattacked, stabbing a Dagger-L through the cockpit.

_Stay calm_, he mentally told himself, _You can do this._

That didn't change the fact that he had a daunting task before him. There were plenty of mobile suits in the air, and even if the enemy squadrons were divided that still left more than enough machines to give Shinn a run for his money. On his side of the field Wufei seemed to be keeping the enemy occupied, but some mobile suits were bypassing the two pilots altogether and heading for the _Minerva_.

"Rey, Luna, look out!" Shinn shouted as he took down another cluster of missiles with his CIWS, "You've got incoming!"

"I see them," said Rey.

"Me too," Lunamaria chimed in, "Don't worry about us, Shinn. We got this!"

Indeed, Shinn could see the white Blaze ZAKU Phantom and the red Gunner ZAKU Warrior positioned on the _Minerva_'s upper hull, their weapons pointed skywards and locking onto targets. A stream of crimson fire ripped forth from Lunamaria's heavy cannon, blasting a Dagger-L to bits of heated shrapnel. Rey opened fire with his beam rifle, and a volley of emerald particle bolts sent a Windam plunging towards the sea, smoke trailing from its damaged thrusters.

The mobile suits weren't the only units on the field getting in on the action. The _Minerva_'s twin Tristan dual beam cannons swiveled in their turret mounts as each weapon locked onto a target before opening fire. The heavy particle beams they unleashed found their marks, setting the aft section of one Alliance destroyer ablaze and blasting away the command bridge of a second vessel. The ship's Isolde triple cannon also unleashed a volley, and the rounds it fired knocked out one of the missile batteries of the first destroyer to have been hit by the Tristan turrets.

However, the Earth Alliance naval forces weren't taking the hits lying down. The assembled destroyers returned fire, cannon rounds and missiles filling the sky while the white foam tracks of incoming torpedoes billowed just beneath the surface of the water. The _Minerva_'s CIWS opened up, and while a few warheads were successfully intercepted others impacted the upper hull of the battleship.

"Damn it!" hissed Shinn as he stabbed a Dagger-L through the cockpit, "They'll pay for that!"

"Stay focused," said Wufei as he cut down a Windam with his beam trident, "You won't do them any good if you get shot down."

Shinn grimaced but held his tongue. As much as Wufei might get on this nerve, Shinn knew that his advice this time was sound. He would have to trust Lunamaria and Rey to defend the _Minerva _while he and Wufei took the fight to the enemy.

If there was any good news to be found in this mess, it was that the Orb Union battle group appeared to be hanging back. Checking his display, Shinn quickly found the reason why; the _Minerva _and the Alliance task force were positioned just outside of Orb's territorial waters. He supposed that as long as the battleship wasn't forced to fall back the Orb ships wouldn't interfere, but Shinn wouldn't discount the possibility of his former homeland stabbing them in the back.

_They've already done that once today_, he thought disdainfully as he tore open a pair of missiles with his CIWS, _I don't see why they wouldn't do it again. Damn them! The Alliance, Orb…_

_ …damn them all!_

**End "Annex"**

….

**Start "B7R"**

Glaring at her target, Lunamaria sighted in and pulled the trigger. "Back off, you son of a bitch!"

A crimson lance of energy flew forth from her heavy cannon, but the blast failed to find its mark; the Windam was too agile. However, the Alliance machine's evasive maneuver inadvertently took it right into Rey's firing line, and the machine was taken down by a volley of emerald beams from her comrade's rifle.

"Nice setup," said Rey.

"Uhm, right," said Lunamaria sheepishly, "Yeah, I meant to do that!"

"Naturally," Rey replied.

It was times like this that Lunamaria hated just how calm Rey could be. Sure, it was good that he could keep a cool head under pretty much any set of circumstances, but it also made him pretty damn hard to read, and right now she really wanted to know if he was mocking her or just being, well, _Rey_.

_Worry about that later_, she mentally chided herself, _Your sister's on this ship, and she's counting on you to keep her from getting blasted out of the water!_

As much as she hated to agree with Wufei on anything, she couldn't help recalling what he had told her up in orbit about having personal reasons to fight. In situations like this, Meyrin's safety was a pretty powerful motivator, and while it might not be one of the reasons why the Defense Council wanted her to fight, it was more than enough for Lunamaria.

If the enemy was just fielding Dagger-Ls then Lunamaria wouldn't be so worried; even with Jet Striker Packs the units weren't too hard to handle. However, the fact that a handful of Windams were flying with them as well made things much more difficult. Not only could they utilize the Jet Striker Packs as well, but they were much more maneuverable than their predecessors. While Lunamaria loved her ZAKU Warrior, its lack of full flight capability was definitely something she was cursing right about now.

Sighting in on another target, Lunamaria opened up with her heavy cannon again. This time her shot found its mark, and the crimson lance of energy speared a Dagger-L and blew it to pieces. Unfortunately there were plenty more where that unit had come from, and the only thing keeping their numbers manageable was Shinn and Wufei fighting out front to occupy the bulk of the enemy mobile suits.

Making matters even more difficult was the fact that her current platform wasn't entirely stable. The _Minerva _was a tough ship, but even a vessel as durable as she was designed to be would still rock under impacts, and with all the fire the Atlantic Federation task force was directing her way it was inevitable that the enemy would score some hits. The ship's CIWS were pulling their weight, but it was impossible for them to intercept all of the incoming fire.

"Shit!" she snarled as a missile impacted nearby her position, scorching the vessel's armor and throwing off her attempts to lock on to another target.

"Are you all right?" asked Rey.

Lunamaria nodded. "Still in one piece. How about you?"

"I can still fight," he replied, "That's enough."

Lunamaria couldn't help but smile; her friend didn't mince words, and she liked that. "Agreed. Let's take these bastards down!"

Locking on to another target, she opened fire. The lance of crimson energy found its mark, destroying a Dagger-L. A volley of emerald beams flew from Rey's rifle, and another Earth Alliance was blown out of the sky.

_At least the Orb carrier hasn't launched any mobile suits_, Lunamaria thought as she checked her sensors, _I don't think Rey and I could handle mobile suits coming in from both fronts. I just hope that they stay out of the fight. Otherwise we'll really be in trouble._

She looked out ahead of the _Minerva_ to check on Wufei and Shinn. Both pilots still seemed to be in one piece, although they definitely had their hands full. The Altron Custom was carving up Dagger-Ls and Windams left and right with its beam trident, but Shinn seemed to be moving at a slower pace. The Impulse in its Force configuration was a good counter to the Alliance's airborne units, but Lunamaria knew that Shinn was unused to fighting against so many enemies at once without support. There was also the fact that the Impulse was a much more energy-intensive mobile suit than Lunamaria's ZAKU Warrior; Shinn's power reserves would not last as long as hers, especially if he continued to fight the way he was now.

Unfortunately, there was little that Lunamaria could do to help Shinn from her position. The best she was currently capable of was to fend off the Dagger-Ls and Windams that made it past him and Wufei. Apart from that, she could only hope that the _Minerva _would inflict enough damage on the Atlantic Federation's warships to convince the enemy to withdraw before the Orb Union forces decided to get in on the action.

_I just want to get out of here in one piece_, she thought as she sent crimson fire into the sky, _The war's only just begun, so there's no way I'm going to let myself die here!_

….

Talia braced herself against the arms of her chair as the ship shuddered under the latest impact. "Report!"

"Torpedo hits on the bottom hull!" the damage control officer replied, "No breaches!"

"Return fire!" she ordered, "Launch Wolfram torpedoes!"

"Aye, Captain!" shouted the main gunnery officer, "Torpedoes away! Tracking…"

On the main tactical display Talia saw four white dots symbolizing the torpedoes racing away from the _Minerva_. A few seconds later the dots disappeared as they met with a crimson triangle; an Alliance destroyer.

"Direct hit!" called the gunnery officer, "Target is dead in the water!"

The display shifted to a visual image of the stricken shift, and Talia saw that it was already beginning to list heavily to starboard. It was still capable of firing its gun turrets and missile launchers for now, but at this rate its upper decks would be swamped with seawater in minutes.

_One down_, she thought, _and plenty more to go._

All things considered, the _Minerva _was doing quite well in the battle so far. The ship had been designed to take a beating, and it was still holding up under the Atlantic Federation's barrage. She was giving as good as she got, with particle beams, cannon rounds, and missiles filling the sky and racing towards the enemy ships. Still, as tough and powerful as ZAFT's new battleship was, Talia wasn't interested in pushing her to her limits; she wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible.

"Parsifal missiles locked onto targets!" shouted Arthur.

Talia nodded. "Fire!"

A volley of surface-to-surface missiles flew from the battleship. Arcing high into the air, they rained down on one of the Atlantic Federation destroyers. A couple of the warheads were intercepted by the ship's CIWS, but the rest found their mark and devastated the vessel's upper decks.

"Tristans, Isolde, fire!" barked Talia, "Finish her off!"

The battleship's beam cannons and triple gun opened up. The salvo punched straight through the center of the destroyer, ripping the Alliance ship in half. Unfortunately, the Earth forces still had four destroyers and three carriers left on the field, and they were continuing to hammer the _Minerva_. Matters were only made worse by the Dagger-Ls and Windams taking potshots at the ship from above. Rey and Lunamaria were doing their best to supplement the ship's CIWS and anti-air missiles, but they still weren't able to completely eliminate the mobile suits that were raining fire down on the _Minerva_.

_Damn it_, she thought as the ship shuddered under another enemy salvo, _We have absolutely no room to maneuver thanks to that Orb task force at our backs. We have to punch through the group in front of us quickly or we're not getting out of here at all!_

**End "B7R"**

….

"That's one tough ship," said the Captain of the _Sessions_.

Rear Admiral Bannon nodded. As much as he might despise the Coordinators, he could at least admit that they knew how to build a solid warship. It was almost a shame that the vessel would be destroyed in this battle; he would've preferred to capture it and add it to the ranks of the Earth Alliance forces.

_No matter_, he thought, _As long as it's removed from the field, that's all that really counts._

The _Minerva _might've been taking hits from the Atlantic Federation task force, but it was dishing out more than it took. The vessel's firepower had been amply demonstrated both in this battle and in the engagements up in space, and the Rear Admiral decided that now was the time to neutralize the threat for good.

"Captain," he said, "Bring the Zamza-Zah up to the flight deck. It's time we finished off that ship."

The Captain nodded. "Understood, Rear Admiral."

Bannon turned his attention to the carrier's upper hull. Towards the rear the flight elevator began to rise a few seconds later, bearing the Alliance's ace in the hole for this battle.

_Magnificent…_

Indeed, the YMAF-X6BD was quite an imposing sight. An experimental attack mobile armor, the weapon looked like a monstrous four-legged mechanized crab. Its heavy armor was a mix of olive drab and dark grey, while a bright orange crest jutted up from the center of the top hull. Since it was so large and complex it required a crew of three, consisting of one pilot and two gunners situated in a cockpit within the well-protected center of the craft. The unit was the product of two years of top secret research and was designed to be capable of utterly eviscerating swarms of enemy mobile suits. To accomplish that task, the mobile armor was equipped a formidable arsenal of weapons. At the end of each leg was a claw-like Vasiliev hyper-oscillator crusher, designed to reduce even the toughest mobile suits to crumpled scrap metal. When close-range-combat was not possible the crushers could retract, exposing M534 Gamzatov multi-phase energy cannons. In addition to these, atop each leg was a turret-mounted GAU111 cannons capable of firing conventional high-velocity slugs. Four Mk79 low-pressure guns were also mounted on the upper hull, in this case two on each side. Rounding out the arsenal were 16 75mm Igelstellung CIWs.

As formidable as the unit's offensive capabilities were, its ability to absorb enemy fire was no less impressive. The unit had incredibly thick armor, and testing had shown that only sustained and concentrated fire from conventional weaponry would give regular mobile suits a chance to penetrate it. In addition to that was a special gem straight from the research labs of Adukurf Mechano-Industries; prototype positron reflectors, one mounted on each leg of the mobile armor. When all four were activated during trials they had proven capable of withstanding fire from battleship-grade positron cannons like those mounted aboard the renegade _Archangel_, and the Rear Admiral couldn't wait to see them cancel out the might of the _Minerva_'s Tannhäuser.

"Flight deck is clear of obstructions!" called the carrier's flight controller, "Zamza-Zah is cleared for launch!"

The Captain turned to Bannon. "Rear Admiral?"

Bannon simply nodded, and the Captain gave the order. "Launch the Zamza-Zah!"

The Rear Admiral smiled as the mechanical beast surged forward. The Coordinators had made the world fear the mobile suit, and while the Earth Alliance had adopted the weapons originally developed by their hated enemy to counter the threat that transition had never sat entirely at ease with much of the Atlantic Federation top brass. Bannon was in that camp, and he was eager to see the world's faith in the mobile suit be proven wrong today.

_The age of the mobile armor begins anew_, he thought, _Crush them, Zamza-Zah!_

….

"Captain!" cried the sensor officer, "New contact has launched from one of the Earth Alliance carriers! It's huge!"

"Identify it!" Talia ordered.

The main bridge monitor shifted, revealing what looked like a giant mechanical crab flying over the waves. Talia was completely taken aback by what she was seeing; the intelligence reports from the Defense Council hadn't mentioned the Earth Alliance having anything like this in their arsenal.

"What the hell is that?" asked Arthur.

"It looks like a new model mobile armor," said Talia.

"The new contact is heading right for us!" shouted the sensor officer.

"That looks like some pretty think armor on it," said Arthur nervously, "I don't think conventional weapons are going to cut it here."

Talia agreed. "Target the new contact with the Tannhäuser. Open fire as soon as we have a full charge!"

"Deploying Tannhäuser now!" called the main gunnery officer, "Charging up… firing!"

A torrent of crimson energy was unleashed and ripped across the ocean waves. There was a bright flash as the shot met the target, and Talia strained to see what kind of damage the new mobile armor had taken.

_If it's not destroyed, it has to be severely wounded_, she thought, _Nothing in the Alliance's arsenal can take a positron blast head-on like that and remain in one piece…_

Then the light faded, and Talia's jaw dropped at what she saw. The mobile armor was completely intact. Crimson sparks from the Tannhäuser's hot danced around the machine, and as she saw the air shimmer she realized that the mobile armor had deployed some kind of energy field.

"Impossible!" cried Arthur.

"It completely repelled the positron beam…" said Talia softly, "I can't believe it…"

Arthur turned to her. "Captain, how are we supposed to fight that thing?"

Talia gritted her teeth as the _Minerva _shuddered under a series of fresh impacts. That was the million dollar question, and if she didn't find an answer to it quickly then her ship would not survive the battle.

_Come on_, she thought as she checked the small display on her personal monitor, _use your head! How can you use the assets that you have on the field? How can you counter this thing? Your crew's counting on you!_

Assessing the situation, she decided to gamble. The Earth Alliance still had its fair share of mobile suits on the field, but their numbers had been thinned out considerably since the start of the fight. Their warships had also taken a beating since the engagement began, but the Orb task force was still floating menacingly behind the _Minerva_. She could only move forward, and as soon as she advanced the new mobile armor would doubtlessly move to intercept it. The machine's full power had yet to be displayed, but just from its appearance Talia did not doubt that it was fully capable of ripping her ship apart. If the _Minerva _was to survive this battle then the newcomer would have to be eliminated.

"Meyrin, contact the Impulse and Altron!" she ordered, "Redirect Shinn to take on the new mobile armor. Wufei will have to keep the enemy mobile suits off his back! Lunamaria and Rey will have to keep the rest of them away from us."

"Aye, Captain!" Meyrin replied.

"Helm!" she shouted, "Take us twenty degrees to port! Weapons, concentrate all fire on the left wing of the enemy force!"

_We can do this_, she thought as her crew rushed to carry out her commands, _Our odds aren't good, but we're not down for the count yet. As long as there's the slimmest chance to save my crew, I'm taking it._

_ I just hope Shinn's up for this…_

….

**Start "Contact"**

Shinn's eyes widened as he shot down a flock of missiles with his CIWS. "Are you serious? The Captain wants me to solo that thing?"

Meyrin nodded. "It's the only way we have a shot at getting out of here. I know it's big, and it looks pretty tough, but the Impulse is faster. Use your speed and you can take it, Shinn!"

Shinn couldn't help but smile; after the way the battle was going so far, he definitely didn't mind her little pep talk. "All right. I'll keep that thing away from you guys, Meyrin; count on it!"

"Be careful," she replied, "and good luck."

"Hey, Wufei!" called Shinn as he sliced a Dagger-L in half, "Did you get all that?"

"Loud and clear," the Gundam pilot replied as he pulverized a Windam with his Dragon Fangs, "Get going; I'll keep the pests off your back."

Shinn was surprised at Wufei's tone. There wasn't any of the disdain in his voice that he usually directed at him. Right now he was all business, and Shinn knew instinctively that he could count on Wufei to cover his rear.

"Thanks," said Shinn as he broke off and headed for the mobile armor, "Watch yourself; you can't die until I've had the chance to surpass you!"

Wufei chuckled as he whirled his beam trident around his Gundam, fending off saber strikes from mobile suits left and right. "You sound like Lunamaria. Very well, then; show me what you've got."

Shinn gunned his thrusters and charged towards the mobile armor, firing as he went. The air around the mechanical titan shimmered, and Shinn found his shots deflected harmlessly into the sea.

"Son of a bitch!" he snarled, "I guess I'll just have to take you on up close!"

As he approached one of the machine's claws retracted, revealing a cannon. Shinn immediately climbed, and it wasn't a moment too soon. A blast of crimson energy ripped through the air, and while it wasn't on the level of the _Minerva_'s Tannhäuser Shinn knew that it would still wreck the Impulse if it connected.

He dived towards the mobile armor, and this time the machine opened up on him with its conventional cannons. Shinn twisted and turned his mobile suit as he tried to work his way through the barrage, but even with the Impulse's speed he still had to use his shield to tank some of the rounds. The impacts threw him off course and only made it easier for other shots to actually hit his machine. The Impulse's Variable Phase Shift Armor was able to absorb the impacts, but doing so cost him power that his unit desperately needed if it was going to triumph in this fight.

Closing the gap, Shinn was finally able to get into saber range of his target. However, the thrusters on the bottom of the machine suddenly shot out a burst of blue and white flame, causing the mobile armor to climb at a surprisingly rapid rate for such a large craft. It then brought back out the claw it had retraced earlier and took a swing at Shinn, forcing him to dive to avoid getting hit.

"Shit!" he hissed, "It's faster than it looks!"

The mobile armor opened fire with its cannons and CIWS, forcing Shinn to fall back under the barrage. His mobile suit shuddered under fresh impacts, and every time he returned fire his particle beams were simply deflected by the mobile armor's energy shields.

_Damn it_, he thought as he frantically checked his gauges, _I'm using too much power! I have to turn this around quickly!_

….

Talia was nearly thrown from her chair as the _Minerva _was rocked by a particularly vicious salvo. "Report!"

"Breach confirmed on the upper hull!" shouted the damage control officer, "There's a fire on Deck Nine, Section Five!"

"Get it under control immediately!" Talia ordered.

_This isn't good_, she thought as she grimly checked her display, _Shinn's keeping the mobile armor at bay, but the rest… we're in trouble._

"Return fire!" Arthur commanded, "Target the closest destroyer!"

On the main monitor Talia saw two pairs of heavy emerald particle beams race across the sky as the _Minerva_'s Tristan turrets opened up. The salvo slammed into the midsection of an Alliance destroyer, and when combined with a follow-up attack from the Isolde triple gun it was enough to break the ship in half. Unfortunately, that still left three destroyers and three carriers for the Alliance to attack her ship with, and that wasn't counting all the remaining mobile suits. With Wufei now focused on keeping the Atlantic Federation machines away from Shinn as the Impulse battled the new mobile armor it was much easier for the remaining units to attack the _Minerva _directly. Lunamaria and Rey were doing their best to fend them off, but their lack of full-flight capability was a serious handicap.

_No choice_, she thought as she scanned the field, _I guess we'll have to risk it…_

"Helm, go thirty to port!" she ordered, "We'll skirt the territorial boundary and try to put some distance between us and them!"

"Aye, Captain!" the helmsman replied.

"Captain," said Arthur nervously, "are you sure about this? The ships from the Orb Union…"

"They haven't fired on us yet," said Talia, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt, "As long as we don't actually cross back into their territorial waters we should be fine."

Arthur nodded. "Understood, Captain."

_We're playing with fire here_, she thought as her ship began to turn, _but we need a way to take some of the heat off from the Alliance. I just hope this doesn't draw the Orb ships into the fray…_

….

Yuna folded his arm as he watched the battle continue to unfold on the displays lining the far wall of the war-room. Things weren't going quite as smoothly as he'd originally hoped, and he was beginning to get frustrated.

_The ZAFT ship is still intact even though the Earth forces deployed their new mobile armor_, he thought, _and none of the enemy's mobile suits have been taken down either. After all the trouble I went through to coordinate our efforts with those of the Atlantic Federation… how irksome._

"The _Minerva _is changing course!" called one of the officers, "She's approaching our territorial waters!"

Yuna smirked; finally, he would have an excuse to get the Orb Navy in on the action. "Give them one warning, then fire at will!"

A collective murmur went through the war-room, and Yuna was a bit taken aback by the notes of dissent he was hearing.

"Just one warning?" said an officer, "But that's…."

"That ship helped destroy the Junius Seven ruins," said another, "It may be with ZAFT, but it helped save the world."

"They're heroes," a third muttered, "Are we really supposed to fire on them?"

Yuna glared at the assembled officers. "I'll say this again so we're all on the same page; give them a single warning, then open fire. That ship is a threat to the Orb Union, and your orders are to destroy it before it can re-enter our territory! Is that understood?"

"Yes, my lord!" they replied.

_Whether by our hands or those of the Earth Alliance_, he thought, _one way or another, that ship goes down here!_

….

"Damn it!" snarled Shinn as the Impulse rocked under another hit.

Things were looking grim. No madder how hard he tried he couldn't make as much as a dent in the Alliance's new mobile armor. Every particle beam he fired was deflected by the unit's energy shields, and every time he tried to get up close to hit it with his saber the machine would either lash out with its claws or hit him with its cannons. Shinn was losing precious power and time with each exchange, and the Impulse could not sustain this.

Wufei might've been keeping the Earth Alliance mobile suits from shooting Shinn in the back, but the Gundam pilot couldn't cover both the Impulse and the _Minerva _at the same time. The Altron Custom had significantly thinned out the enemy numbers since the fighting had began, but there were still just enough Dagger-Ls and Windams left on the field to both keep Wufei occupied and to pose a threat to the _Minerva_. When he looked back at the battleship, Shinn could see Lunamaria and Rey in the fight of their lives trying to defend the vessel. They were both still in one piece, but their machines were starting to show signs of damage from glancing hits from particle beams and missile detonations. The two of them had to be getting tired, and Shinn knew that the best way to end this fight quickly was to take down the mobile armor that stood between the _Minerva _and escape.

The ZAFT battleship itself had altered course in order to take some of the heat off of itself, but Shinn doubted it would work. Its new path took it perilously close to the Orb Union's border, and Shinn had no doubt that the warships of his former homeland would open fire if the _Minerva _crossed the territorial divide.

Sure enough, as cannon rounds shook the Impulse, he heard a broadcast over an open channel. "This is a warning to the _Minerva_. You are approaching our territorial waters! Alter course at once or we shall open fire! This is your only warning!"

_Those bastards_, he thought, _They'll backstab anyone if it suits their needs. Damn you, Orb!_

An alarm went off in his cockpit, and Shinn's eyes widened as he saw the Impulse's energy gauge dip into the red. The unit would now shift over to emergency power, and that meant only one thing; the Variable Phase Shift Armor would deactivate, and Shinn would be vulnerable.

"Damn it!" cried Shinn as he took a cannon round on his shield, "Not now!"

His protests did him no good; the Variable Phase Shift Armor was already coming down, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. It would be impossible for the enemy to miss the shift in the Impulse's color scheme as its defenses failed, and the giant mobile armor wasted no time in taking advantage of it. The machine lunged forward, and Shinn raised his shield to fend off the attack. He was only partially successful; the shield did take the worst of the blow, but the sheer power behind the strike shattered Shinn's sole remaining means of defense and sent the Impulse falling towards the sea.

"No!" he yelled, "Shit!"

Time seemed to slow as Shinn plummeted towards the waves below. As he fell he caught glimpses of the rest of the battlefield. There was Wufei continuing to fend off Alliance mobile suits, his beam trident a whirlwind of emerald death. There was the _Minerva_ under fire from the remaining enemy warships and mobile suits that darted about above her. There were Lunamaria and Rey, both atop the ship and fighting desperately to keep the vessel intact.

And there was his overwhelming anger and desperation to save them all.

_It can't end like this…_

_ …I can't die here!_

_ I can't let _them _die here!_

It was in that moment that a strange image formed in his mind's eye. He could see what looked like a seed slowly spinning as it descended towards a pool of water. The tip of the seed touched the surface, a single ripple went across the water…

….and then the seed itself burst with brilliant light.

**End "Contact"**

….

**Start "Excalibur"**

"Impulse is hit!" called the sensor operator, "It's falling to the sea!"

"Shinn!" cried Meyrin, "Come on, Shinn, talk to me! Come in, Shinn!"

On the main monitor, Talia could see the Impulse descending towards the waves below. Its fall seemed to be a sign of how the broader battle was going. Despite the best efforts of Wufei to thin out the crowd and Lunamaria and Rey to supplement the _Minerva_'s weapons, the ZAFT battleship was getting hammered by the surviving Earth Alliance forces. Their current position, so close now to Orb's territorial boundary, did them no favors; if the battleship strayed any closer to the demarcation Talia was certain that the warships just on the other side of the border would open fire, and that would be the end of the _Minerva_.

_Is this really our fate?_, she thought, _Are we truly to fall just at the start of this war? I cannot accept that, and yet…_

Suddenly Shinn's voice came over the bridge speakers. "_Minerva_, this is Impulse! Meyrin, I need a Deuterion Beam and a Sword Silhouette!"

Meyrin turned to Talia. "Captain?"

"Give it to him!" Talia replied.

There was something different in the young pilot's voice. To Talia, Shinn seemed to have become more focused than she'd seen from him before. There was a new intensity in his voice, along with a feeling of certainty. Talia wasn't quite sure what her hotheaded pilot had in mind, but he definitely seemed confident enough, and with the situation as desperate as it was she decided to take a gamble on him.

_All right, Shinn_, she thought, _Let's see what you've got up your sleeve…_

A pulse of light shot from one of the _Minerva_'s Deuterion Beam emitters. It hit the Impulse right in the head, swiftly recharging its batteries. At the same time a Sword Silhouette was catapulted into the air and went racing towards the mobile suit. However, it didn't have a clear path to the Impulse; a Windam was already moving to intercept it.

"Shit!" she hissed, "Get a missile lock on that Windam before it shoots down the Sword Silhouette!"

Even as she gave the order, she knew it was too late; the Alliance mobile suit already drawing a bead on the Sword Silhouette. However, just before it could take the shot it was hit from behind by a familiar and most welcome sight; one of the Altron Custom's Dragon Fangs. Its thrusters crushed, the Windam spiraled down towards the sea, leaving the Sword Silhouette with an open path to Shinn. The Impulse jettisoned the Force Silhouette, and almost immediately the new augmentation pack took its place. The unit's Variable Phase Shift Armor switched to the red and white color scheme associated with the Sword Silhouette, and Shinn swiftly drew the pack's twin anti-ship blades.

__The giant Earth Alliance mobile armor didn't simply sit back and wait for the Impulse to take the offensive. It opened up with every cannon it had, filling the sky with slugs. However, with fresh energy reserves and seemingly a new sense of resolve, Shinn was able to thread his way through the barrage. Talia watched in awe as the Impulse practically danced through the sky; it felt like she was seeing an entirely different pilot at the controls of the prototype mobile suit.

_Is… is that really Shinn in there?_, she thought numbly, _The way he's moving… I've never seen him fly like this before. Was he always capable of this? It's almost like…_

_ …one of the Gundam pilots is in there._

She had studied the training records of each of her ship's pilots once she had been put in command of the _Minerva_, and nowhere in Shinn's dossier had there been any mention of this level of skill. Of course, since he'd still been at the academy at the time there was naturally plenty of room for his abilities to develop after graduation, but Talia still felt that there should've been something in his record indicating the kind of combat potential that she was seeing now.

Finally making it into sword range, the Impulse wasted no time in carving into the Alliance mobile armor. First to go were the four heavy topside cannons, each sliced away as easily as a sharp axe might cleave through dry wood. The mobile armor tried to shake Shinn off, but the ZAFT Red was able to maintain his position through expert manipulation of his maneuvering thrusters. Raising both anti-ship swords, the Impulse then plunged the blades into the heart of mechanical beast. Sparks and gouts of flame spewed forth from the wounds, and as Shinn pulled away the mobile armor was torn apart by a fierce internal blast.

"Unbelievable…" Arthur murmured.

Talia was just as stunned as her XO, but as the ship's Captain she did not have the luxury of remaining dumbfounded. The loss of the enemy mobile armor gave her an opening that she immediately moved to exploit.

"Helm, go forty to starboard!" she ordered, "Weapons, charge up the Tannhäuser again! Target the central carrier!"

As she issued her commands she saw that both Shinn and Wufei were already altering their own deployments now that the mobile armor was destroyed. The Altron Custom was rushing back towards the _Minerva_; Lunamaria and Rey were about to get some much needed cover in the sky. Meanwhile, the Impulse was charging forward, and Talia saw it was making a beeline for one of the three remaining Earth Alliance destroyers. The entire battle seemed to have shifted with the destruction of the large mobile armor, and Talia felt a renewed sense of hope that she and her crew might yet live to fight another day.

"Tannhäuser is fully charged!" shouted the main gunnery officer.

"Fire!" Talia yelled.

A fresh crimson blast ripped forth from the front of the battleship. In the blink of an eye it raced across the ocean waves before slamming into the carrier at the rear of the Atlantic Federation's formation. The vessel was completely torn apart by the wave of energy, and based on its position Talia felt reasonably confident that they had just destroyed the battle group's command ship.

The _Minerva _shuddered under another barrage of particle beam fire from the mobile suits zipping about above the warship, but it was the last such blow the vessel would take. Wufei was now among the ranks of the harassing Earth Alliance units, and he wasted no time in carving into them. A Windam was cut in half by the whirling double-ended beam trident before a Dagger-L was crushed by a blow from one of the Gundam's Dragon Fangs. The surviving Earth Alliance machines quickly reoriented themselves to face Wufei, but they fared little better than their fallen compatriots. Lunamaria and Rey were sending fire skyward, and the same went for the _Minerva_'s anti-air weaponry, but they couldn't hold a candle to the Altron Custom.

_He's tearing them apart_, thought Talia as she watched Wufei impale a Windam straight through the cockpit, _I'd love to know where he learned to fight like this…_

Meanwhile, Shinn was starting his assault on the surviving Earth Alliance warships. The first destroyer in his path opened up on him with everything it had, but it was to no avail. Shinn's advance was too fast, and he was right on top of the vessel before its crew knew what hit them. The ZAFT Red's first target was the ship's bow cannon, which it cleaved clean off the destroyer. It moved on to the warship's missile launchers, and after those were destroyed the machine plunged its blades into the vessel's bridge.

With one destroyer neutralized and two more remaining, Shinn quickly moved on to his next target. Talia could only watch as the Impulse combined its two blades into a single weapon before letting fly with one of the mobile suit's beam boomerangs. The energy projectile cut across the vessel's rear decks before returning the Impulse, and Shinn followed that up by bringing his combined sword down and cleaving the ship in half.

Confident that Shinn would soon have the last destroyer taken care of, Talia turned her attention to the Alliance carriers. There were two of them left, and while they were lightly armed and armored when compared to the _Minerva_ they were still capable of attacking her.

"Target the left carrier with the Tristans and Isolde," she ordered, "Fire as soon as you have a solution!"

"Copy that," replied the main gunnery officer, "Targeting solutions locked in. Firing!"

The _Minerva_'s beam cannons and triple gun opened up, raining hell down on their target. The salvo blasted a gaping hole in the carrier's portside, and a follow-up shot ripped the vessel apart. Meanwhile, the Impulse was already assaulting the final destroyer, proceeding to cleave the ship's bridge clean off the vessel. Talia was about to order her gunnery officer to target the last carrier, but Shinn was already moving on that vessel.

_He's shifting seamlessly from one target to the next_, she thought, _I've never seen him fight so fluidly before._

The Impulse's charge was a death sentence for the last Alliance ship on the field. The carrier opened up on the mobile suit with its anti-air beam turret, but the shots failed to find their mark. Talia knew that Shinn would have no problem landing his blow on the carrier, and he wasted no time in doing so. She saw the Impulse twirl its combined anti-ship swords, ripping apart the carrier's flight deck before thrusting one end of the weapon right through the vessel's bridge.

"All Earth Alliance vessels are down!" the sensor officer reported.

Arthur let out a sigh of relief. "We did it… I can't believe it."

"The battle's not quite over yet," Talia gently admonished him, "There are still some enemy mobile suits left on the field, and they're not retreating."

_Then again_, she mused, _Wufei hasn't really given them a chance to._

Indeed, the pilot of the Altron Custom was carving through the survivors like a buzz-saw. A Dagger-L was sliced in half with a swipe from the Gundam's beam trident before a Windam was impaled by the same weapon. Supporting fire from Lunamaria and Rey took down two more machines, leaving just a handful left in the air. The enemy force had been all but annihilated, and at this rate Talia was sure that the mopping up of the survivors would be a swift affair assuming they did not take their last chance to withdraw.

"Recall the Impulse," Talia ordered, "Wufei can handle the remaining hostile mobile suits. Helm, get us back on course to Carpentaria."

"Aye, Captain!" the officer replied.

"Shinn, this is the _Minerva_," said Meyrin, "You can come back to the ship now."

"No," Shinn replied.

Talia's eyes widened; the boy was picking _now _of all times to defy a direct order? "Shinn Asuka, this is your Captain. Get back to the _Minerva _now!"

"No," Shinn repeated, "This battle's not over yet."

"Wufei has the remaining Alliance units under control," Talia countered, "The Impulse needs to be brought in for repairs. Return to the ship at once!"

"Orb's still on the field," Shinn shoot back, his tone as sharp as a knife, "I'm taking them down!"

"Impulse is accelerating," said the sensor officer, "It's heading straight for the Orb battle group behind us!"

_No_, thought Talia with a mix of fear and fury, _He's going to get us thrown into another fight that we don't want!_

"Shinn Asuka, _stand down!_" she snapped, "Orb has not engaged us, and you will _not _attack them without provocation! That's an order!"

There was no response this time. On the main monitor she could see the Impulse charging towards the Orb Union forces, and he showed no signs of stopping. While it was true that Orb had turned against them, the fact remained that the battle group behind them had not yet attacked the _Minerva_. There was still a chance for the ship to get away without engaging them, but Shinn was about to throw that right out the window.

"Captain!" cried Arthur frantically, "What should we do? He's still heading straight for them!"

"I can see that," said Talia grimly, knowing exactly what she had to do, "Keep our current course; we're getting out of here as fast as we can. If Shinn attacks Orb, he will do so alone."

"But he could get killed or captured," Arthur protested, "We can't afford to lose him or the Impulse!"

"The _Minerva _and all of those aboard her are more important now," Talia shot back, "Shinn's brought this upon himself."

It might've been harsh, but in Talia's eyes it was the only way to salvage the situation. If Shinn was unable to set aside his personal issues with the Orb Union, Talia was by no means obligated to go along with his vendetta. Shinn would be stuck in a mess of his own making, and even if it meant losing him and the Impulse Talia did not intend to put her ship and crew at risk to save him from his own anger and insubordination.

_If you survive this, Shinn Asuka_, she thought, _you will have a _lot _of explaining to do!_

**End "Excalibur"**

….

"Shinn, stop it!" cried Meyrin, "Shinn, come back!"

Shinn cut the connection without a word. Her protests, and those of Captain Gladys, meant little to the fury that was driving him now. Ever since that strange vision he'd experience earlier in the fight he'd been driven by a single-minded desire to eliminate _any _threat to himself and his friends. It didn't matter that the Earth Alliance forces had been dealt with; the Orb Union ships were still there and capable of firing on the _Minerva _at any time. The fact that they had already issued a verbal threat to the ship earlier in the fight only made it easier for Shinn in his rage-filled mind to target them after the Atlantic Federation units had been dealt with, and with the new energy and focus the vision had granted him he knew that he could easily take them all down.

And that's when something green and heavy slammed into the Impulse from the side.

"What the hell?" cried Shinn as he was thrown violently off course.

Another sudden impact rocked his machine, causing it to further deviate from its flight path. Reorienting himself, Shinn quickly found the source of the hits; the Dragon Fangs of the Altron Custom.

"Stand down, Shinn," said Wufei, "_Now_."

"No!" Shinn shot back, "They're the enemy! We have to take them down!"

Wufei's reply was another Dragon Fang, and this one nailed the Impulse right in the torso. The impact threw Shinn back in his seat, and it was only thanks to his helmet that he wasn't knocked unconscious.

"The battle's over," said Wufei, "The enemy has been defeated. It's time to go."

"Bullshit!" snarled Shinn as he brought his machine back up, "Orb stabbed us in the back! They have to pay!"

"They haven't attacked us yet," Wufei replied calmly, "The enemy that blocked our path has been defeated. Yes, the Orb Union _did _betray us, but engaging them now when we have a clear path out of here is beyond pointless. The _Minerva _took some serious damage, Shinn; she needs to retreat, and so do you."

"What do you care about the _Minerva_?" Shinn growled, "I thought you were just here so you could fight!"

"I'm here to fight according to my sense of justice," said Wufei, "While the Orb Union may have sided with the Earth Alliance, the fact remains that they have not attacked us yet. They are still on their side of the territorial line and have not moved to cross it. Besides, attacking a single battle group will accomplish nothing at this point. The Orb Union will answer for the course of action it chose today sooner or later, but the Earth Alliance is the main enemy. The forces they deployed against us today have been defeated, and there's not justice in continuing this fight just to satisfy whatever petty vendetta you have with Orb."

"_Petty vendetta?_" Shinn repeated incredulously, "You son of a bitch! You have no idea what I lost because of them!"

"Regardless, the fact remains that we need to leave here," Wufei replied, "One Alliance battle group has been defeated, but another could show up at any time. Are you willing to take the chance of one arriving here and killing your friends all for the sake of your grudge with the Orb Union?"

_That _hit Shinn like a bucket of cold water. Checking his sensors, he quickly found the _Minerva_, along with Lunamaria and Rey. They were all still in one piece, but they had also sustained damage during the battle. If the Orb Union forces were provoked into an attack there was no guarantee that his comrades would be able to survive another round of combat. There was also the fact that the _Minerva _was not moving to join Shinn in his charge; it was actually heading in the opposite direction out to the open ocean.

"So," said Wufei, "what's it going to be? Are you going to follow your rage, or will you finally listen to reason? If you choose combat, I won't stop you, but know this; you will fight alone, and you will likely _die _alone."

Shinn grit his teeth; he wanted nothing more than to punch Wufei in the face at the moment, but at the same time he could feel the adrenaline and fury that he'd been mainlining start to seep out of his system. That renewed energy and focus that he had gained after the vision with the seed was fading, and he was increasingly becoming aware of how ragged his breathing was. The battle had taken a heavier toll on him than he'd realized, and if he attacked the Orb Union forces in this state he would very likely be shot down.

"Fine," he said, "Let's head back to the ship."

"You first," Wufei replied, "I'll follow once I'm sure the Orb force isn't about to launch its mobile suits against us."

Shinn nodded and hit his thrusters, making a beeline for the _Minerva_. Now that his head was starting to clear, he realized that he was going to be in a _lot _of trouble once he returned to the ship. He had disobeyed a direct order from the Captain, and he doubted she would take that lying down.

_I'll worry about that later_, he thought as he spared one last glance back the Orb battle group, _I just want to get the hell out of here._

_ I never want to see this damn country again._

….

"Impulse is lined up for hangar approach," said Meyrin, "Shinn, you're clear to enter the ship!"

Talia sighed with relief as she watched the Impulse make its final descent. That machine's hot-headed pilot had given her quite a headache, and despite the talent he had displayed on the battlefield today she had no intention of letting him get away with it. There were very clear protocols in place for situations like this, and she intended to follow them to the letter.

"Arthur," she said, "Send a security detail down to the hangar. As soon as Shinn leaves the Impulse, they're to escort him to the brig."

Arthur's eyes widened. "Captain, are you serious? Without Shinn's actions today…"

"I'm well aware of what he accomplished against the Earth Alliance forces," Talia shot back sternly, "and that this ship would likely have been destroyed were it not for him. However, that does not excuse the fact that he disobeyed orders and moved to attack the Orb Union battle group _after _the Alliance forces had been neutralized. He damn near got us into another fight, and there's been enough combat for one day. As this ship's Captain it's my duty to enforce discipline amongst the crew, and clearly I've been lax if Shinn thinks he can defy direct orders without consequences. I would rather rectify that now than have it bite us in the rear down the road and get us all killed."

Arthur nodded. "Very well, Captain."

She turned to the sensor officer. "Where's the Altron?"

"Heading towards us now," the officer replied, "It'll be set for hangar approach soon."

_At least Wufei's not picking unnecessary fights today_, she thought, _I suppose I should thank him for pulling Shinn back from the brink, although the manner in which he did so is a little concerning. Still, it worked, and I guess that's enough for now._

The battle was over, but Talia knew that today's troubles still weren't behind her yet. Not only would she have to file a report regarding the battle, but she would also have to send a disciplinary notice to the Defense Council regarding Shinn's actions. Due to his status as the Impulse's pilot it was hard to say how the Council would rule on this matter, and there was always the possibility of Durandal exerting influence on their decision. While Talia valued Shinn's skills and the power of the Impulse that did not change the fact that such a blatant breakdown of discipline in her top pilot had to be addressed immediately.

"Damn it, Shinn," she muttered, "Get that temper of yours under control…"

_Preferably before I _really _have to throw the book at you!_

….

"You can't be serious!" Shinn cried, "What the hell, Arthur?"

Shinn had been expecting to get a cold reception upon his return to the _Minerva_. He'd even been prepared to spend a little time in the brig, but the Executive Officer's notification was like a punch to the face.

Arthur folded his arms. "Don't act so surprised, Shinn. You're a soldier and are supposed to follow the chain of command, but you violated explicit orders from the Captain. If you ask me, you're lucky you got off this easy."

Shinn was flabbergasted. "How does 'indefinite confinement' qualify as _easy_?"

"There is an exception built into it," Arthur countered, "The Captain recognizes your piloting skills, which is why if the ship comes under attack again you will be allowed to sortie in the Impulse. That's a luxury you get only out of necessity. Your ultimate fate will likely be decided by the Defense Council."

Shinn sighed. "When will that be?"

Arthur shook his head. "I'm afraid I can't say for sure. We are at war now, after all, which means that the Council has its hands full. Disciplinary action regarding a single soldier, regardless of talent and the mobile suit they pilot, is likely a low priority for them at the moment."

"So you're saying I could be stuck in here for the _whole war?_" asked Shinn incredulously.

"That is a distinct possibility," Arthur replied, "apart from combat, of course. I'm sorry, Shinn, I really am. I won't deny that your piloting skills and what you were able to accomplish today are why the _Minerva _is still standing. However, the Captain is well within her rights to confine you. After all, you nearly started another fight after the Earth forces were defeated. Our top priority has been the same since we left the dock; to escape the Orb Union and make it to Carpentaria. You put that in jeopardy; the Captain _had _to take action, Shinn!"

Shinn slammed his fist against the wall. "Damn it!"

Arthur gave him a pitying look. "You should get comfortable, Shinn… and try to avoid further outbursts. I suggest you think long and hard about how you're going to defend your actions to the Captain. She won't go as easy on you as I just did."

"Whatever," Shinn replied, all but spitting out the word.

Arthur shook his head. "I don't have time for this; I'm needed back on the bridge. Farewell, Shinn… and good luck."

Shinn leaned back against the wall of his cell as the ship's XO left the room. Apart from a bunk, a small shower, a sink and a toilet it was about as sparse one might expect. It offered very little in the way of privacy and was far less comfortable than the modest quarters he was used to as a ZAFT Red.

"What the hell was I thinking?" he muttered.

It was a very good question. His animosity towards the Orb Union was common knowledge amongst the crew of the _Minerva_; Shinn had never exactly been subtle about it. However, even with the grudge he bore against his former homeland it was still hard for him in retrospect to understand why he had moved to attack the Orb battle group after the Alliance forces had been defeated. He might not have liked Orb, and the fact that they had deployed warships against the _Minerva _didn't help things on that front, but he still couldn't believe that he had openly defied the Captain in such a manner.

_That vision I had_, he thought, recalling the seed bursting into light, _What was that? After I saw it, I felt powerful. I was furious, but I was also focused. I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I was going to save my friends no matter what…_

The sheer rush he had felt was unlike anything he had experienced before. At the same time he'd gained what seemed like an intuitive grasp of the entire battlefield. He had known exactly what he needed to do to accomplish his goals, and he had the power to take down anyone that stood in his way.

Except for Wufei, that is. Shinn still couldn't believe that the pilot of the Altron Custom had stopped him in his tracks so easily. The first two hits from the Dragon Fangs might've been surprise attacks, but the third had been a head-on strike and he still hadn't been able to dodge it. Even in his state of heightened adrenaline and focus Shinn had been slapped across the sky by Wufei in a manner so casual it was downright embarrassing. It reminded him of his encounter with Heero on the _Minerva _shortly after the attack on Armory One; the Albion's pilot had knocked him out cold with a single blow. As strong as he had grown since then, the dominance Wufei had shown against him today was a harsh reminder of how far he still had to go.

_I'll catch up to them_, thought Shinn, _Heero, Wufei, all of them. I'll surpass them all, and then no one will be able to stop me ever again._

He was sidetracked by the sound of a nearby door sliding open. Sitting upright, he saw Lunamaria and Rey appear outside his cell a moment later.

Lunamaria shook her head when she saw him. "You really screwed up this time, you know that?"

"I concur," said Rey, "Shinn, what happened out there?"

He sighed. "I… I don't know. I just… snapped."

"Come on, Shinn," said Lunamaria, "We want to help you out here, but you've got to give us more to work with than that!"

"It's the truth!" Shinn protested, "I just… I lost it. I remember seeing the Alliance attacking the ship, you and Rey trying to fight them off, and I was so… so _angry_…"

"Your fury is understandable given the circumstances," said Rey, his eyes narrowing, "but there had to be more to it than that. We both saw the way you took down that mobile armor and the rest of the Alliance ships, Shinn."

Lunamaria nodded. "No kidding. Where did _that _come from, Shinn?"

Shinn shook his head. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Oh, yeah?" Lunamaria replied, raising an eyebrow, "Try us."

"We're your friends, Shinn," said Rey, "The least we can do is hear you out."

Figuring that he had nothing to lose at this point, Shinn described the vision he'd experienced during the battle. Much to his surprise, neither Lunamaria nor Rey dismissed it out of hand. They simply listened patiently as he ran through everything and withheld judgment until he was finished.

"Interesting," said Rey, his brow furrowed in thought.

"Yeah," said Lunamaria, "That's definitely a new one for me."

"I'm not lying about this," said Shinn.

Lunamaria smiled. "Easy there, Shinn. I never said you were lying. I'd know if you were; you suck at it. I've just never heard of anything like this before."

"I might have," said Rey, causing both Shinn and Lunamaria to turn to him in surprise.

"Really?" asked Shinn, his eyes widening.

"What are you talking about?" asked Lunamaria.

"There was a rumor going around during the last war," said Rey, "It was about one of the pilots on the _Archangel_."

Shinn rolled his eyes. "Let me guess; Heero."

Rey shook his head. "Actually, it was about the pilot of the Strike. Before it was destroyed, several soldiers reported witnessing a sudden surge in its performance during certain battles. It was as if the pilot had undergone some sort of transformation that amplified their combat abilities. What you're describing might be the same phenomenon."

"Are you serious?" asked Shinn.

Rey nodded. "The closest analogue that comes to mind for something like this would be the berserkers of old. The way you depicted your mental state after experiencing the vision certainly falls in line with that. Have you ever experienced anything like this before?"

Shinn shook his head. "No, this was the first time."

"Wait, did you just call Shinn a berserker?" asked Lunamaria nervously, "I know he's got some anger issues, but that seems a little extreme."

Rey shrugged. "I'm simply telling you how this all fits together based on past reports from the last war. Some analysts within ZAFT applied the label to the pilot of the Strike after witnessing those performance surges I mentioned earlier. Shinn, if you could gain control over this phenomenon and activate it at will you would have a very formidable weapon in your arsenal."

Shinn sighed. "Easy for you to say. I still have no idea how it happened to begin with. I mean, I've gotten angry before and it hasn't triggered."

"Maybe it was a one-off," said Lunamaria, "I mean, we've been in dicey situations on the battlefield before now and this didn't happen to Shinn."

"Our combat experience is rather limited," Rey replied, his eyes narrowing, "and none of them brought the _Minerva _closer to destruction than today's fight. The desperation of our battle today might have something to do with triggering your ability, Shinn."

"Honestly, I have no clue," said Shinn, "I don't think I'll be able to pull this off outside of combat, so I've got no way to test it."

Rey nodded. "Well, if you do trigger it again, let us know. We need to study this ability of yours. If it's not a one-time thing, then we need to figure out how you can gain mastery over it."

Lunamaria smiled. "Rey's right. I mean, I still don't like that he called you a berserker because of it, but I saw what you did to that mobile armor earlier. A power surge like that could really save our hides in a pinch. It definitely did so today."

Shinn smiled in return; it was nice to at least have _someone _complimenting the new abilities he'd displayed today rather focusing on the second fight he'd nearly picked with the Orb Union. Lunamaria and Rey might get frustrated with him, but times like these were proof to Shinn that they always had his back. He couldn't ask for better friends than them.

"Well," he said, "I can't make any promises. I'll just try my best like I always do the next time we get in a fight and go from there."

Lunamaria nodded. "Sounds good to me."

"We'd better get going," said Rey, "I don't think the Captain would be too happy to find us down here when she comes to read you the riot act."

"Rey's right," said Lunamaria, "Sorry, Shinn. We'll try to visit again later. Hang in there… and try not to make an ass of yourself, okay?"

Shinn couldn't help but laugh. "All right. I'll see you guys later."

….

Leaning towards the monitor on his desk, Durandal's eyes narrowed as he processed the information just given to him. "A berserker? You're certain?"

Rey shook his head. "Not completely, but the possibility cannot be ignored. At the very least, the behavior Shinn displayed today does show parallels to that of the pilot of the Strike… and the Freedom."

"I trust you left that second part out when you spoke to him?" said Durandal, "Asuka's file indicates a certain level of hostility towards that machine."

Rey nodded. "I refrained from that. It wasn't hard. After all, it's not common knowledge that the pilot of the Strike is the same one that wields the Freedom."

Durandal smiled. "True enough. Kira Yamato didn't become a household name in the last war due in large part to the fact that for much of it he was a Coordinator fighting for the Earth forces. That peculiar set of circumstances made the likes of Patrick Zala and his supporters rather uncomfortable."

"It also helped bury his association with the research conducted at the Mendel colony," Rey added, "I imagine that was a bonus for my… predecessor."

"And one for us as well," Durandal replied, "It gives us more room to maneuver where Kira Yamato and his allies are concerned."

"What will we do when they show up on the battlefield?" asked Rey, "Their only action so far was the intervention in Operation Redemption, but with the war heating up they won't remain on the sidelines forever."

"There are contingencies in place, Rey," said Durandal, "Which ones we act upon will depend on how our rogue actors next take to the stage. I'll give you further instructions on that matter when the time comes."

Rey nodded. "Very well. Is there anything else you need from me at this time?"

"Yes," said Durandal, "I'd like an assessment of the Gundam pilot that remains with the _Minerva_."

Rey's eyes narrowed. "Is there something in particular that you're looking for?"

"Amenability," Durandal replied, "I want to know if he's really in line with our way of thinking. The fact that he's remained with the _Minerva _since Operation Redemption is certainly a positive sign, but I need more concrete information."

Rey shook his head. "That's difficult for me to provide at the moment. He's a highly skilled pilot, but his motives are hard to properly discern. He claims to be fighting for his idea of justice, although I cannot say for sure what exactly that entails. Also, it would appear that he has a certain… _affinity _for the battlefield that I've yet to observe in any of our pilots."

Durandal raised an eyebrow. "I'm assuming you're referring to something separate from his fighting abilities, correct?"

Rey nodded. "Yes. From what I've observed, it seems that he considers the battlefield to be as much of a home for him as L5 is to us Coordinators. It appears that he stayed with the _Minerva _in large part because he considered it to be a pivotal ship in this conflict. He sees it as at the heart of the new campaign, and so he's inclined to stay since it provides him with the most direct means to engage the enemy head-on."

Durandal smiled. "Interesting. There are pilots in our ranks that I've seen express a similar mentality to what you're describing. We may be able to make use of this."

"I would advise proceeding cautiously," said Rey, "Wufei is still a rather unpredictable individual. In that he follows in the lineage of Wing Zero's pilot."

Durandal shook his head. "No man is a complete enigma. In one way or another, they give away their true motivations. One simply has to learn to read them and look for the signs."

"I'll defer to your judgment on that front," Rey replied, "There is another angle that we might be able to pursue with him, though."

Durandal was intrigued. "Oh? What might that be?"

"He's kept his distance from most of the crew," said Rey, "and only interacts with Shinn and I on more or less a professional basis. However… he has spent some time with Lunamaria. More so than he has with any other crewmember, at any rate."

"Interesting," said Durandal, "Are you detecting any inclinations on his part?"

"I can't make any assumptions there as of yet," said Rey, "but I believe it bears further monitoring."

Durandal concurred. "Indeed. Please inform me of any future developments on that front."

"Of course," Rey replied.

"Is there anything else that I should be aware of?" asked Durandal.

"Well," said Rey, "there's the matter of Captain Gladys. She's furious with Shinn at the moment, and not without reason; he did disobey a direct order."

Durandal nodded. "Of course. I concur with Talia's decision to withdraw once the Alliance forces were defeated, and it's a shame that Shinn felt otherwise. However, if he did enter into this 'berserker' state, it's possible that his reasoning abilities may have been adversely affected by it."

The ZAFT Red raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying that should be a defense for Shinn's action? I doubt the Captain will agree with that."

"It's merely something we should keep in mind," said Durandal, "especially if Shinn goes into this state again."

"What will you do regarding his sentence?" asked Rey, "He is currently in the brig, after all."

"Well, I'm certainly glad that Talia made an exception for combat operations," said Durandal, "Still, it's unproductive for him to be stuck in there for the rest of the war. I'll intervene on his behalf with the Defense Council. He should be released from confinement once the _Minerva _reaches Carpentaria.

"That's only a few days worth of confinement," said Rey, "The Captain won't be happy with him having such a light sentence. I agree that his value as the Impulse's pilot means that it's not conducive to the war effort to keep him in the brig indefinitely, but letting him off this easily could send the wrong message."

Durandal nodded. "I'm aware of that. Harsher measures will have to be imposed in the future, and I'll make sure that the Council stresses that point when they send their next transmission to Talia. The fact of the matter is that Shinn needs every possible opportunity to develop his gifts, whether it is on the battlefield or in simulation. If he truly does have the same berserker capabilities as those displayed by Kira Yamato in the last war, then we should do all in our power to cultivate them. It could give us a decisive advantage in this conflict."

"I agree," said Rey, "However, if we want him to have as big an impact as Kira Yamato, then we'll need to get him a better mobile suit. The Impulse is formidable and has the capacity to play a vital role on the battlefield, but it's still not quite on the same level as the likes of the Freedom or Justice."

Durandal smiled. "You're right about that. I was already considering him as a possible pilot candidate for the Destiny once it's operational. Thanks to your report, I think he just shot to the top of the list."

"What about the Legend?" asked Rey.

"Don't worry," Durandal replied, "That one's meant for you and you alone. It's only fitting, after all."

Rey nodded. "Of course."

"By the way," said Durandal, "How have you been holding up? You're staying up to date on your medication, I trust?"

"I take it regularly," said Rey, "and I've been keeping up with my visits to the ship's doctor, just like you ordered. Everything's under control."

Durandal nodded. "That's good to hear. Do give me notice if things change on that front."

"I will," Rey replied.

"Now," said Durandal, "did you have anything else to report?"

Rey shook his head. "No, but if you don't mind I do have a question."

"Go ahead," said Durandal.

"What will we do about the Orb Union?" he asked, "They're now on the Alliance's side unofficially, and I suspect an official statement formalizing their pact will be not long in coming. They've rebuilt their military since the last war, and while it's not as powerful as ours or that of the Alliance it is still nothing to be taken lightly."

"Orb's pact with the Earth Alliance is a contingency that was planned for by the Defense Council," Durandal replied smoothly, "Our plan was always to assume a defensive posture during the initial phase of the war; Orb throwing their hat into the ring simply puts greater urgency on our need to reinforce our positions down on the surface. We'll be on the lookout for their units in combat areas, but for now we are not actively seeking to engage them; countering the Earth forces remains our top priority."

"I hope the Captain's decision to leave Orb without permission from the Defense Council has not adversely impacted your campaign plans," said Rey.

Durandal smiled. "On the contrary; I approve of Talia seizing the initiative in the manner that she did. The Defense Council has been overly preoccupied with orbital affairs and Operation: Spear Of Twilight. I'm afraid the status of the _Minerva _got lost in the shuffle. It's most unfortunate; were it not for that tip from Heero Yuy the vessel could very well have been captured and handed over to the Alliance, along with all of you. I'm most pleased that did not come to pass."

Rey's eyes narrowed. "I can understand the Defense Council forgetting about a single ship given the scope of the war, but the fact that Heero Yuy of all people tipped us off about Orb's intentions and gave us the chance to escape concerns me. The Surface Intelligence Bureau should've caught wind of the attempt to seize the ship and given us the warning to get out of the country. Failing that, they should've at least considered the chance of Orb falling into the Alliance's orbit and given us direction to depart before that happened. I find it worrying that a single pilot seems to have better on-the-ground information sources within the Orb Union than the entire SIB."

"The Orb Union has always been suspected of being Heero Yuy's primary base of operations since the end of the Bloody Valentine War," Durandal countered, "It's not all that surprising that he would've cultivated contacts within the nation's military and civilian government to support his activities. You forget that he's more than just a pilot; he was a pivotal leader in his own right in the last war, although I doubt he saw himself as such. His abilities have likely made him a senior member of Miss Clyne's new organization, and I'm willing to bet his authority and access to information sources within it is considerable."

"That seems like an awful lot of power to give to one pilot," said Rey, "Even if the pilot in question is Heero Yuy."

Durandal smiled. "In a way, one could make the argument that his position with Miss Clyne's supporters is not all that different from our FAITH organization. If what we observed up in orbit along with his role in the _Minerva_'s escape from the Orb Union is any indication, he has a great deal of latitude and is able to act in the way he sees is best to accomplish larger strategic goals. It's a fitting role for one as gifted as him. I just think it's a shame that he refused to join _us _in such a capacity."

Rey shook his head. "Heero Yu_y _is too unpredictable. Forgive me for speaking frankly, but I don't think a long-term alliance with him would ever be viable. The same goes for the other pilots that were with him up in orbit. Even Wufei should be treated as suspect, regardless of his current position with us."

Durandal nodded. "Your concerns are noted and appreciated, Rey. Still, I do hold out some hope that we might at least be able to coax Wufei into the sort of partnership that Heero turned down. His skills are as impressive as his machine, and he has a consistently high performance baseline."

"Indeed," said Rey, "Is there anything else you require of me?"

"Not at this time," said Durandal, "Please, get some rest; I'm sure you've had a trying day, and you must remain in top form to ensure that the _Minerva _makes it to Carpentaria in one piece."

Rey nodded. "I shall. Farewell, Chairman."

Durandal smiled. "Until next time, Rey."

The ZAFT Red disappeared from the screen, leaving the Chairman a few moments alone with his thoughts. His unofficial set of eyes and ears on board the _Minerva _had certainly given him plenty to mull over, not the least of which being the newfound abilities of the Impulse's pilot.

_His instructors did note a certain natural talent within him_, he mused as he pulled up Shinn's file, _I suspected that he had great untapped potential, but I never realized that it might be on this order of magnitude. Such a fascinating development... and one that bodes quite well for the future. You will most certainly bear watching, Shinn Asuka. I hope you don't disappoint me._

He would've liked to spend a little more time mulling over the matter, but unfortunately he had a schedule to keep. Exiting out of the file, his fingers danced across the keyboard as he set up the link for a new transmission. It did not take long for the man on the other end of his call to appear on the screen.

"Chairman Durandal," said Major Adam Langley, "What can I do for you?"

Durandal did not mince words. "Is the Case Black Rose strike team ready to move out?"

The Special Forces officer's gaze darkened at the mention of that particular black op. "Yes, but… permission to speak frankly, Chairman?"

Durandal nodded. "I insist upon it."

"The team will follow their orders," said the Major, "I can guarantee that. However, if we do this, there's no turning back. It won't sit well with them after the deed is done. We could face serious repercussions down the line, especially if word of it leaks out. Chairman… do we _have _to do this?"

"Yes," said Durandal without hesitation, "She's had her chance to come home, Major. There is too much at stake for her to be permitted such freedom any longer. This _must _be done."

The Major slowly nodded. "Very well. We can launch in two hours."

"Do it," said Durandal coldly, "The songstress dies tonight."

**Preview for next time!**

_Having successfully run the gauntlet thrown up by the forces of the Earth Alliance and the Orb Union, the Minerva makes for Carpentaria. With no enemy forces in pursuit, she arrives without incident, and the crew soon find themselves joined by an unexpected arrival: Athrun Zala, newly inducted into ZAFT's FAITH organization and given a new mobile suit to aid them in their next campaign. Meanwhile, Terminal engages a strike force targeting none other than Lacus Clyne, forcing Heero and the others to accelerate their plans and jump right into the fray of the Second Bloody Valentine War. The Seirans seek to bring Cagalli into their camp once and for all, but the Gundam pilots have other plans for Orb's Chief Representative. Next time, on "Destiny's Call", Episode Eleven: Tipping Point._

_Come at the king, you best not miss…_

**Author's Notes: **All right, it feels good to have another chapter posted! Sorry for the delay here. I'm not going to lie; over the past two weeks in particular I've been a bit distracted with this little thing called _The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild_. Seriously, I'm pretty sure I'm addicted, this game's amazing!

Hope you all liked the chapter. Please review!


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